


The Lonely Yet Vengeful Swordsman

by Bravsoul



Category: Xenoblade Chronicles 2
Genre: F/M, Gen, OC maybe a bastard, OC sent from our world into another world, Slight AU Divergance, but sometimes a good person, don't know what kind of tags to put here, will come up with something along the way
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-12-17
Updated: 2018-01-16
Packaged: 2019-02-15 23:30:59
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 25,487
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13041792
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Bravsoul/pseuds/Bravsoul
Summary: The Butterfly Effect.It's when if you were to do something small, big things will be heading your way. In this case, one person managed to save a live of another and now they're on an adventure that they never asked for. However, if they were to get home, then they'll have to follow them until they get to that place.The place where one would call Home.A Xenoblade Chronicles 2 AU where instead of Rex dying by Jin, he's saved by someone.





	1. The Beginning of an Adventure and of the Sorrow

**Author's Note:**

> Hey guys! Welcome to a brand new story in development! Recently, I've had the chance to play a game called Xenoblade Chronicles 2 and I absolutely loved it! The story, the mechanics of the game, everything about it makes me feel like I'm part of the story itself! Of course, that's just how I feel when I'm playing the game. This story will spoil most of the content, so if you want to play the game for yourself, feel free to leave. If not, enjoy the chapter!

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which, this is how the plot is going off the rails the minute something unnatural happens.

“To those that are traveling to Argentum Trade Guild, please be ready to depart! I repeat, our next stop is Argentum Trade Guild!”

 

As the loud voice rang out of the ship, a figure stirred in their sleep as they slowly woke up. They were wearing a cloak over their person so it’s hard to tell what kind of person they are, but one could tell that they have a sword on them. They stood up from their seat and walked outside to the side of the boat. When they got outside, they could see the neverending Cloud Sea. The one thing that made up Alrest, if not the entire world. Not only that, the World Tree was also in sight from where they were now.  

 

From what the figure remembers, the citizens originally resided with their creator, the Architect, on Elysium, which resided on top of the World Tree. Years past on and the Architect cast the citizens out for whatever reason and gave them Titans for them to reside on. In a way, the Architect took pity on them. Since then, everyone managed to live peacefully on the Titans. Yet, the Titans were not impervious to time and soon, they began to die of, one by one. About 500 years ago (or more, the figure reckons), a war broke out between the Empire of Mor Ardain and the Kingdom of Uraya over the land. The figure couldn’t remember anything after that, but they reckoned something did happen during that time that made the two kingdoms go into a ceasefire.

 

About five minutes went by and the figure could see the guild in sight. The guild was hugh and it looked full of life. If you were to ignore the giant Titan that was above the guild, the figure could see why this was the biggest trading guild in Alrest. There were people going to and fro, carrying different kinds of product and selling said product to the people. From humans to those little creatures, the figure figured that he could find something to buy while they’re here. As the boat docked safely, those that were riding the boat made their way down the docks and into the guild. The figure looked up from his position and saw that the guild was much larger than they originally thought.

 

Making their way into the guild, they could see an abundance of shops everywhere. From selling sweets, books and accessories; to selling weapons, diving gear and food. Apparently, the guild had it all.

 

Looking at the various shops, the figure spotted the one shop that he was looking for and made their way towards the shop. The shop that they were going for was the core shop. Although the core shop sells core chips, they also do blacksmiths jobs as well. When the attendant saw the figure approaching, he put on his business smile and greeted the figure. “Hello there sir! What can I do for you? Are you looking to purchase some core chips?”

 

The figure shook their head and pulled out their sword. “This needs maintenance. Can you do it?”

 

The sword in general had a slight curve to the blade, the color of the blade was black as it was made from the strongest ore the figure could find  and on the hilt of the sword was designed in an X-shape. The handle itself, however was designed differently as it had black and red stripes running down the handle. “Huh. This looks a bit different from what we’re used to making. Who designed this?”

 

“Me.” The figure pulled out a blueprint and handed it to the attendant, “Wanted something fast and agile. This was the result. Can you repair it?”

 

The attendant looked over the blueprint and the sword before looking at the figure. “Yeah, me and my boss should get it repair. Still, repairing a sword like this is rare, you know? In any case, repairing this sword costs about 50 gold.”

 

The figure fished out a bag from his person and took about 50 gold from the bag. “Do you have any spare swords I could use in the meantime?”

 

The figure nodded while placing the gold in his pocket and took a random sword from the sword rack. “Here. This should suffice.” The sword looked like any blade that you would see someone carrying on them. With the blade looking like a normal broadsword in general.

 

The figure took a few swings to test the sword out and found it decent enough to have in the meantime. “How long until my sword is finished?”

 

The attendant took a moment to calculate before answering. “With a blade like this? It shouldn’t take more than a day or two to finish.” 

 

The figure nodded, gave his thanks and headed off in a different directions, leaving the attendant to do his duties. Having some free time on their hands, they took the time to look through the various shops they had passed through.

 

“Would you like to try some sweets?”

 

“Hey! Try reading this book! It has an amazing plot twist at the end!”

 

“Hello dear~! Why not try this delectable fish~? I guarantee that you’re taste buds would be dancing~!”

 

...Apparently, the figure decided that it would be best if he find an inn to retire for the day. Seeing the stairs, he made his way up when he heard something curious on the way. “Bana need more clearing on that friend.”

 

“Oh, it’s quite easy enough Chairman Bana. There’s a job that I’m offering, which would be more filling to your pockets and for us to verify something.”

 

“Hmmm, if friend offering Bana more gold to his pocket, Bana won’t question what is you looking for. 400,000 gold for job done?”

 

“Exactly.”

 

The figure raised an eyebrow in curiosity. A job that was offering that amount of gold? Something doesn’t seem to add up about it, but the figure only shrugged as they weren’t involved with it whatsoever. As he made his way up the stairs, he could see the entirety of the guild at its fullest. Customers going places and the sort. They could even see some children playing around from where he was at. After making his way through another set of stairs, he could see people sitting around at some tables and drinking some beverages.

 

 _‘Finally, a bar. I need something drink after that voyage.’_ The figure didn’t even make it past three steps before they bumped into someone on the way. “Oh sor-”

 

“Oi oi oi! Where do you think you’re walking into, huh?!” The figure came face to face with the person that had bumped into them and see that the person in question looks no different than any of the bandits they’ve seen. The bandit’s face has several scars, the only scar that looked different from the others was that the scar ran from his forehead to his cheek, leather armor and a few things that the figure couldn’t give a damn to find. “You made me spill my drink! Now, it’s gonna cost ya!”

 

Those around the two began to murmur with each other. A few that the figure could pick up were ‘He’s dead’, ‘Well, the bar’s gonna have another one to clean up’ and its personal favorite ‘I wonder what’s for dinner?’

 

The figure couldn’t help but laugh at that, but the bandit didn’t find anything funny. “You damn… Fucking die already!” The bandit pulled back his arm and took a swing at the figure. What he expect was that the figure would fall on his back and let the bandit wail on him with reckless abandon.

 

What he didn’t expect was the exact opposite to happen.

 

Right when the bandit’s fist was about to make contact, the figure moved his head down, letting the arm sail past their head before moving to grab the bandit’s arm and flung him over his shoulder, causing the bandit to hit the ground. The bandit lost his breath for a moment, lying on the ground to catch his breath. Seeing the bandit like this, the figure lost interest and promptly left. “H-Hey!” The bandit slowly stood back up on his feet as he pointed to the figure. “I-I’m not done with you yet!” He took out a giant blade that was brimming with energy from his back and showed it off to the figure, “You see this right here? This here is something that’s going to cut you in half! Hey Blade! Get over here!”

 

Something came walking towards him from behind and the figure could see a humanoid figure walking towards the bandit. The figure has seem some things that were common to Alrest and Blades were no exceptions. The Blade in question looked to be something he called ‘default’. In other words, the Blades body being all black and grey.

 

Still, if it turned out like this, the figure could let loose a little bit. Just a bit.

 

“Huh, so you’re a Driver? I’ve been wanting to test something against someone like you.” The figure took out the sword that he got from the blacksmith and held it to their side, “If you’re really strong like everyone is saying, then I’m going to be having the time of my life.”

 

:”Hah! You think that you can deal with me?! Me, the mighty warrior Gangal!?”

 

“Keep running that mouth of yours and you’ll soon find yourself down at the bottom of the Cloud Sea.”

 

Gangal the bandit took offense to that and charged at the figure. Seeing the bandit raise his sword, the figure just raised his own sword to block the attack.

 

_CLANG!_

 

Gangal and those around them stood in shock as they try to take in what just happened. The figure had just block an attack made by a Driver, a Driver that has been told to have immense power at their disposal where no mere human would have no chance at defeating them.

 

Apparently, they were wrong on that part.

 

“Right, this fight is starting to bore me.” The figure pushed the sword away and made his move. Gangal couldn’t see where the figure went and frantically looked to where he is. Before he knew it, he felt something was itching his neck. He went to scratch it and found out that there was nothing there. In fact, he couldn’t even feel anything at all. Soon enough, Gangal saw his body fall in front of him and the Blade that was with him fade out of existence.  

 

It would seem that Gangal the bandit has passed away.

 

The figure gave a _tch_ as he put away the sword. “Damn. Didn’t even last long.” The figure then felt eyes staring at him like he was the prey. Deciding that it was time to move, he quickly grabbed the crystal when the Blade disappeared and made his exit.

 

\------

 

Somehow after the commotion, the figure found his way on top of the Titan that was carrying the ship. Once he found himself a secure place, he pulled out the crystal that he picked up from that bandit and took a long good look at it..

 

Core crystals, the only thing that is known where a Blade is born. If one should have the required aptitude to becoming a Driver, then that Blade would bond with that Driver until they die. Once a Driver dies, the Blade would retreat back into a crystal, where it would recharge until it is ready to accept a new Driver. However, one should know that if a Blade were to accept a new Driver, they would forget everything about their previous Driver.

 

Such as the life of a Blade.

 

“I wonder how long do I have to wait until this core crystal fully recharges…? Bah, if it comes back to life, then that’s that. No need to worry about it.” The figure placed the crystal into the bag and tied it up. From there, he looked out to the sun that was just setting for the day. “I wonder how everyone is doing back home… Hopefully, he didn’t drink all of the booze I’ve stocked up for when I get back. I still have yet to drink them!” The figure sighed depressingly as he thought of said person drinking all of the booze.

 

With that in mind, he fished something out from his bag and took something that looked to be a round rectangle shape object. On one side, it had only an emblem of sorts that looked to be two pairs of controllers, one that that is black and the other is white but is slightly up. On the other side of the object were the two controllers, yet both are colored black with various of buttons on them and a joystick.

 

This was the Nintendo Switch. A gaming device that was immensely popular on Earth.

 

With a press of a button, he opened the screen and from there, he access the screen with a home in a circle on it to another screen that has several selections on it. _‘Let’s see, if I remember correctly, Rex is supposedly going to show up at this place and thus will get into the adventure of a lifetime. However, he does lose his life to that person… what was his name again? Bah, whatever! I’ll remember it when I get there. Only thing I want to know is,’_ The figure smirked under their hood. _‘How strong he is when we fight. Hehehe… I want to fight him and go all out.’_ Afterwards, the figure pulled their hood off of their head to let the air blow through.

 

The figure’s face had only little feature such as a small spiked orange hair, a small scar across their nose and small, but wide eyes. This figure was named Roxas Ukango. A man that was sent to this world by some strange unforeseen event. How he got here, even he doesn’t know. In any case, he powered up the Switch where it lead him to the home screen. After that, he pressed a button a few more times and it lead him to another screen where it showed several selections. _‘That guy that killed Rex, he’s someone that I must_ never _underestimate, no matter who he was in the past. I’ll have to be careful of that lightspeed move that he has on him. Hmmm, I wonder what could counter against something like that. I do have some ideas, but I don’t know if they’ll work or not…’_ Roxas thought of a few different moves that might counter something that moves at the speed of light, but decides to think about it later.

 

From there, he looked at the sun once more before it finally set down into the Cloud Sea. _‘Whatever happens, I’ll fight my way through, just like I had to do back home. I will find my way back home… and maybe help Rex find Elysium. I don’t much care for the boy, but having him alive will be crucial to getting there. That and the fact that they’ll be fights along the way. Heh, I can’t wait!’_ With that thought in mind, he fished out a blanket from his bag and slept like a log on the Titan.

 

\------

 

Morning came relatively quick for Roxas as he made his way through the crowd of the guild. Funny thing was that yesterday’s event seems to have almost completely vanished. No one knew what had happened since then, but Roxas saw this as a blessing in disguise. He didn’t want to have to deal with the authorities at the moment. Soon enough, he found himself back at the blacksmith where he went on the first day he came here. The one that had attended to him wasn’t the same person as before and was a Nopon instead. When the Nopon noticed Roxas, it put on its best company smile. “Hello! Friend need something from here?”

 

“Yeah. I had a sword that needed repairs?”

 

“Ah! Other friend work here told me that customer left unique sword! SaaSaa wanted see sword. Was curious to find sword so unique!” The manager (presumably, in Roxas’s case) went into the back of its shop to fetch Roxas’s sword. Few minutes went by and the manager came out with a cloth wrapped around something. The manager then unbundled the cloth ro reveal Roxas’s sword, “It something that SeeSee never seen before! It very interesting to see something not common of sword!”

 

Roxas took the sword from the manager and took a few swings with the sword. It felt even heavier than before when he first arrived. “Huh, this feels a bit different from before. Did you do something to my sword?”

 

“Yes yes! SaaSaa help friend with repairs, but friend want see if sword could bring durability up, so used other material to bring it up. But, did not work as this result.”

 

“You call this a failure, I call it a success. With my sword upgraded like this, I can up my training!”

 

“Ah… if friend satisfy, then SaaSaa won’t complain!”

 

Roxas also grabbed the sheath from the manager and put both the sword and the sheath back on his waist. He then grabbed the spare sword that he was given by the attendant. “Here, I believe this is yours.”

 

“Ah, no wonder SaaSaa couldn’t find sword. Was something another friend requested. Hopefully, it-” As the manager pulled the sword from the sheath, the sword seemed to have split in two. If one were to look closely, the manager looked like it was about to pop a casket. Roxas decided that it might be time to book it and ran. “HEY! COME BACK! YOU BROKE SWORD FOR REQUEST! MONEY IS NEEDED FOR COMPENSATION!” The manager tried to catch up to Roxas, but due to its short legs, it couldn’t keep up. Roxas almost felt sorry for the Nopon manager. However, years of traveling taught him one thing about Nopon.

 

They’re very stingy with money.

 

However, as he was running, he didn’t see where he was running towards and made his way towards the opposite side of the guild, where another Titan ship was docked, only this was a lot bigger than the other Titan ships. Quickly getting on the ship and making sure that the manager didn’t see where he hid, he made his way into a storeroom and hid there until he knew that he was in the clear. As he was waiting for the all clear, he decided that it would be best if he took a nap until then.

In the end, that turned out to be a mistake.

 

\------

 

**Roxas’s POV**

 

“Uhhhhh… Damn, how long did I slept for?”

 

After I managed to lose the manager of that blacksmith shop, I slept for… fucking, I don’t know how long, but it feels like ages. Stretching out my limbs and hearing some of my bones pop, I felt some relief afterwards. However, that relief was short lived as the door to the room opened. I immediately went for my sword and pulled whoever it was that opened the door, quickly shut the door and pressed the person against the wall. Before they could shout, I pressed my sword against the back of their neck. “Okay, here’s what I want you to do. **Shut up.** ”

 

The person shivered in fear as they feared that they were going to lose their life. “Now, here’s another thing I want you to do. Turn around slowly and face me.” I let the person go while still having my sword pressed against them. When the person fully turned around, I could see that it was a young boy with with a tuff of brown hair, yellow round eyes and a blue salavager suit outfitted to withstand the pressures of the Cloud Sea.

 

Huh, now that I can see him more clearly, he looks like the person I’m trying to find. But then again, they all look alike to me. “Who are you?”

 

The boy swallowed a lump in his throat before speaking, “M-My name is Rex. I’m a salvager on a job for Chairman Bana.”

 

...Well shit.

 

“Huh. And you took this job because…?”

 

“I, I wanted to send money back to my home village and the job that Chairman Bana offered was enough to send half the money to my village. After I help out the ones that requested me, I would get the rest.” If the boy was this naive enough to think that he’ll get the money, he’s got another thing coming. In any case, I put away my sword as I kept my eye on the boy. Even if he’s someone that I needed to find, that doesn’t mean shit to me. If I remember by reading the various amounts of fanfic, it’s that anything can change whenever one would put something in their fics.

 

Honestly, I could care less about what they put in those fic of theirs, I just want the fights. “Didn’t anyone here tell you to read the fine print before you accept these kinds of job kid?”

 

“Huh, but isn't just salvaging some old relics or something?” I swear if this boy was so naive…

 

I shook my head as I contemplate whether or not this was a good idea. “ _All personal, we’ve arrived at our destination! Salvagers, prepare for dive!”_ Huh, perfect timing.

 

“Ah! That’s us! Sorry, but I got to go!” Wait, what?! Did you literally forget that I tried to kill you or something!? Before I could say anything, Rex grabbed whatever it was that he was looking for and bolted out the door. Seriously, what the hell was that?

 

In any case, it looks like I was at the part where Rex and those ‘clients’ are going to get that ship. I should get ready as well. Don’t want to miss this one! Silently looking out of the door, I could see that the majority of the ship’s crew were down below under the Cloud Sea getting that wrecked ship. Using this opportunity, I slipped to the top of the ship where it was raining, but not as much as I would’ve expected. I looked over the ship in time to see the wreck just breaking the surface of the Cloud Sea. Time does seem to move more faster than I could remember. Nevertheless, the salvagers that had just brought the ship up were returning onto the ship. From where I was, I couldn’t seem to find Rex anywhere. I can only assume that he’s already inside the ship with those people.

 

...Better catch up to him before I miss the fun.

 

Taking some steps back away from the railing, I took a running sprint towards the railing and jumped. In hindsight, I should’ve saw this coming as I was nowhere near the wrecked ship and I was starting to fall into the Cloud Sea.

 

Luckily, I had something up my sleeve to prevent this.

 

“ **Air blast!”**

 

Compressed air started to form at the bottom of my foot and when that air blasted outward, I used it to propel myself back on track and managed to land onto the ship. From there, I booked it towards the entrance of the ship. I could see the salvagers looking at me with a surprised look on their faces, but I paid no mind to them as I ran past them. If that fight had already past, I’m going to be pissed!

 

\------

 

**Rex’s POV**

 

After me and the rest of the salvagers were able to get the wreck out of the Cloud Sea, I was called by the clients to enter the ship with them. To be honest, I never had a big job like this before, but I wasn’t one to turn away when someone needed me. Especially when so much money was given to me upon accepting the job. The clients that had made the request were three people named Jin, Malos and Nia.

 

Jin was wearing a mask when we first meet and had white hair. He also was wearing some kind of grey body armor. Not only that, he had a sword that was stretched across his back. It also had a red crystal for some reason. Maybe it held something powerful in it. I didn’t question it as I didn’t want to pry.

 

Malos was another client that wanted my on this salvage job. He was also wearing some body armor on him like Jin, but it’s colored black with a gold plating on his chest. Beside him was a Blade that looked like a lizardman with blue lines running across it. He kinda surprised me when he suddenly attacked me. Although, I could see why would he do that. Still, something seems off about that guy.

 

However, it did remind me of that person in the storeroom. He did tried to kill me, but for some reason, I didn’t seem to panic as much as I should’ve when we first met. I wonder what happened to him now...

 

Anyways, the last of the clients was Nia. Nia was wearing some kind of cloth that ran across her whole body with a few accessories adorning it. Her Blade was a tiger that was striped with grey and white and had some armor on it. Her weapon was of two rings. She was a bit bossy and had this childlike behavior and acts like an adult when we’re clearly the same age.

 

In any case, these people were the ones that wanted me specifically on the job. I don’t know why, but I’m not complaining when there’s a lot of money that I could send back to my village. When we entered the ship, there already monsters crawling inside of the ship. Jin and Malos made quick work of them while Nia and me took care of the leftover monsters. “Man, I’ve never seen ship like this. You reckon that whatever it is you’re looking for will be here?”

 

“Well, it has to be.” Nia said while making sure she wouldn’t slip, “We wouldn’t spent so much gold on having this many salvagers on board, including you.”

 

“Geez. Is whatever you’re looking for that important to you guys?”

 

“I don’t know. Jin and Malos didn’t say much.”

 

I nodded as they both continued to follow behind Jin and Malos. Rex kept on looking around in at the interior of the ship with awe while Nia was talking with her Blade about something. After about an hour of clearing the way and making sure that everyone is accounted for, we found ourselves in front of a large door with a symbol on it.

 

“There it is. Addam’s Crest.” Malos said.

 

“‘Addam’s Crest?’ What does that mean?” I was confused about what Malo had just said. What did he mean by that?

 

“You.” I was a bit startled by the sudden noise and turned around to find Jin looking at me with crossed arms, “Open this door.”

 

“Eh, me?”

 

“This door will open to one of you people.”

 

“One of me? What’re you talking about?”

 

“Hurry up and do it! We’re not paying you to ask dumb questions!” Malos yelled at me with irritation.

 

I was shocked and slightly angried that Malo would yell at me like that. “What the hell…? You can’t treat hired hands like that!” Nevertheless, I went over to the door. I didn’t know how to open a door like this and I can’t see anything that resembles a lock of sorts. However, when I was about to see if there was anything that could open this door, the symbol in front of me glowed and suddenly opened. “Oh, so that symbol was the release toggle!” After the door opened, I walked ahead of the group, my curiosity growing even more.

 

“Wait!” I heard Jin called out to me and I turned around to see what else he wanted, “There. Open that door too.” I turned back to see another door with the same symbol as well. Doing the same as the last one, I hovered my hand over the symbol and it glowed as well. When the door opened, I saw something surprising.

 

A capsule stands in the middle of the large room and in it was a girl. The girl had red hair akin to her choice of clothing that left the arms and legs bare with red shorts and… I refuse to describe about the girl’s chest.

 

I’m not a pervert, damn it!

 

Instead, as I try to pry my eyes away, my eyes then landed on the sword itself. It looked rather impressive with its sleek red blade and various of the mechanical parts on the sword. On the sword was a green crystal adorned on the hilt. I then drew the connection that girl in the capsule was a Blade and the weapon that was situated in front of the capsule was the weapon. The crystal shine its light and I could feel myself being drawn towards the light. I didn’t realize that my hand was making its way towards the weapon.

 

“Hey brat! Don’t even think about touching that!”

 

“Huh?!”

 

Before I knew it, my hand touch the crystal and dozens of light suddenly were surrounding me, as if it had accepted me.

 

**_CLAAAAAANNNNGG!_ **

 

Jumping a little, I quickly turned around to see Jin with his sword outstretched and was mere inches away from my chest. I turned to see who it was that had just saved me when I recognized said person. “Y-You?! W-What the…?!”

 

“Save your questions for later kid. As for this one-” The person then managed to push Jin away as he stood in front of me. “Leave this one to me.”

 

“What the hell?! Who is this guy?!” Malos was clearly not happy with what’s going on and drew his weapon as his Blade also prep itself for battle. Jin also adopted a battle stance and prepared himself for combat. Nia looked to be at a loss and didn’t know what to do. The person stood there for a moment, not making any movements yet has his guard up the whole time. Finally, he did something that I haven’t seen anyone do.

 

He laughed.

 

“Hehehehehehehe... HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! **AHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!** ”

 

He just kept laughing and laughing as if he’d heard the funniest thing in all of Alrest. He kept laughing and laughing and laughing without any break. Suddenly, he stopped and faced Jin and Malos. I couldn’t see his expression, but I could feel something murderous on him, even when it wasn’t directed at me. “So, you want to know about me, is that right?” The person twirled his sword around until they placed it unto his shoulder.

 

“The name’s Roxas Ukango! A swordsman by trade and-!” Before I knew it, he charged at them with the intent to kill.

 

" _The guy that’s going to kick your ass!_ ”

 


	2. Not Sure of the Details, but will Keep Pressing On

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After the battle, Roxas woke up in the forest of sorts and was wounded from the battle. Pyra tells of Roxas the story of where they are and how they ended up to their current location. 
> 
> It will only get more confusing from here.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm starting to think it's kinda unhealthy for me to write these so close to midnight. I mean, I know that midnight is when everyone is practically asleep or is on their graveyard shift at some workplaces, but you gotta admit, it's the most quiet time to concentrate without anyone to annoy you! 
> 
> At least until it gets dangerously close to morning. Then you're nocturnal at some point. 
> 
> Eh, if it comes to that, I'll have to make due with it.

“Uuuuuuuggggghhhhhh… What happened?”

 

I slowly moved myself into a sitting position, but as I did so, I could feel my head starting to split open like a watermelon. I grabbed my head in pain and groaned, trying to make sense as to what the hell happened to me. However, I could see that we were in some kind of forest. In front of me was Rex on the ground passed out from who knows what and my bag along with my sword. Miracuously, it’s still in one piece.   

 

“Ah! You shouldn’t move like that!” A voice called out to me and I looked to see a girl in front of me. The girl had red short hair, had this vest of sorts with a black undershirt covering her breasts and red shorts with red stockings that showed her legs. Not only that, there was a emerald crystal on her head and on her chest just above her breasts. She then came right by my side and wrapped some bandages around me arm and legs to stop the bleeding.  

 

Ah, this must be…

 

“You’re a Blade, right?” The girl jumped a little with a surprised expression on her face, but that quickly disappeared as she nodded, confirming my suspicion, “Then where’s your Driver? You have one, right?”

 

“U-Ummm…” The girl fidgeted uncomfortably and looked around uncomfortably as if she was looking for something.

 

What was it that she was looking for? Was she looking for Rex or something? What could it be that was making her this uncomfortable?

 

I questioned this until I looked down to my hands that I finally understand why. In my hand was the weapon that Rex was supposed to use on his adventure. Huh, now that I took a closer look at it, the weapon looked pretty impressive. A red sleak blade with various of mechanical parts on it. Not my style, but it does look rather impressive. But that’s not what’s important right now. What’s important…

 

...Is that I’m her Driver.

 

Shit.

 

“You, girl,” The girl looked up from wrapping bandages around me. “How long was I out and what happened that lead to us being here?”

 

“Um, first, you were out for about a day and second… Well…” She seems hesitant at first, but she later told me everything that had transpired.

 

This had better be good.

 

\------

 

**A day ago**

 

_CLANG! CLANG! CLANG! CLANG! CLANG! CLANG!_

 

If one were to look at this fight from an angle, they would see sparks flying almost everywhere in the area. Rex was standing behind the sword as he was watching the fight from a distance. Nia, on the other hand, had gotten away at some point with her Blade, clearly not wanting to be a part of this.

 

Roxas was having the time of his life as he was fighting against something strong for once. Jin showing no weakness continued attacking Roxas, but it was clear that Jin was slowly losing his ground. The same could be said for Malos as even with the power of being a Driver, he couldn’t seem to gain any leeway against Roxas.

 

However, that didn’t seem to last long as Roxas was starting to show signs of exhaustion. Jin saw this as an opportunity and used it by leaving an afterimage of himself and going around. Roxas seeing this tried to intercept the blade and counter his attack, but it partially worked as Jin’s blade was able to graze his side and Roxas was able to slash Jin’s leg, leaving behind a nasty gash. Malos followed up Jin’s attack by sending a blade of air at Roxas, knocking him off his feet. Roxas rolled on the ground for a few minutes before managing to get right back onto his feet.

 

“Haa… Haa… Haa… You guys are pretty good.” Roxas pointed his sword at the two with a bloodthirsty smile on his face, “Don’t fall right now, I’m just getting started here!”

 

“Why is it that you stand in our way? Could it be that you want the Aegis’s power for yourself?” Jin asked.

 

“Psch! That power is quite tempting, but I’m not interested having a shortcut! What I have here is the strength that I’ve gathered traveling alone! I won’t fall here, not now nor ever!”

 

“Heh, you forget one thing.” Malos suddenly charged at Rex with lighting speed, “We’re here for that weapon!” He then reared his weapon and made to kill Rex.

 

“Shit!” Roxas used his Air Blast technique to catch up to Rex and barely made it in time to block the attack from Malos. Both weapons clashed, leaving sparks in their midst. Malos pressed his weapon against Roxas’s, but Roxas held on and pressed on. Soon enough, Malos jumped back with his Blade, leaving Roxas breathless.

 

 _‘Shit! I forgot that I didn’t come here to fight them! Although I’m having the time of my life, I need to get Rex and the girl out of here!’_ Roxas thought to himself before addressing Rex, “Hey kid! We need to get out of here, now! Did you pull that weapon out yet!?”

 

“I-I tried, but the tip of the weapon is stuck!” Rex showed this by pulling the handle of the blade. While he was pulling the weapon, it didn’t look like it was budging.

 

“Damn it! Well, time for plan B!” Roxas swung his sword at the capsule glass, shattering it into million of pieces and his sword barely hitting the side of the girl’s head. He then jumped up the capsule, grabbed his sword embedded into the capsule and the girl. “Oi Rex! Hold onto the sword!”

 

Rex held onto the sword without any hesitation and as he held onto the sword, he could feel something flowing into him. However, he couldn’t get the time to figure out what it was on the account that Roxas pulled him _and_ the sword off the ground and started sprinting towards a direction away from Jin and Malos. “You’re not getting away that easily!” Malos’s Blade ran ahead of the two with its weapon in hand and sent out a blade of air towards Roxas.

 

Roxas gave a _tch_ and made to dodge the incoming attack, but widened his eye as he saw Malos coming in with some sort of black energy in his hands. With no time to dodge or counter, he took the brunt of the attack head on flew into the air. Yet, even if he was attacked, he still held onto the girl and Rex as he was sailing through the air. Roxas managed to land back onto his feet, but managed to land a few feet away from them.

 

_CRACK!_

 

“Gah!” Roxas felt something crack in his ankle and felt it giving off more pain. _‘Damn it! Why now?!’_ With no time left to spare, Roxas looked around for a way out of this predicament when he looked up. Few seconds went by and Roxas had a flash of inspiration and smirked.

 

“Well boys… I’d say that it was the time of my life when we fought, but now-” Roxas crouched down and the air around him started to spiral upward, “IT’S HIGH TIME WE GO! THE NEXT TIME WE MEET, WE’LL FIGHT ON MY OWN TERMS!”

 

Roxas jumped upward using the flow of the wind  at high speed until he’d reached the ceiling.

 

“What’s he doing?!”

 

“...!”

 

“Roxas, what are you-!?”

 

“ **Wind Style: Cyclone Blade!** ”

 

The air that was carrying Roxas upwards suddenly spiral faster and faster, leaving more dust in its wake. Just as the air made contact with the ceiling, a hole appeared in the middle and the piece that made the hole was pushed out of the way, allowing Roxas, Rex and the girl to quickly make their escape. Jin and Malos were a bit lost for words as they had just witnessed something powerful. “Tch, you’re not getting away that easily! Jin!”

 

“Wait.” Malos stopped midway in his stride and looked at Jin to see him wearing a weary expression on him, Something doesn’t feel right with him.”

 

“Yeah, I know what you mean. A human like him shouldn’t have that much power nor should he have been able to counter our attacks. Just what is he?”

 

Jin didn’t have the answer to that question, but pushed the thought to the side for the time being. Right now, the Aegis was getting away.

 

\------

 

A sudden burst of air appeared out of nowhere, alerting most of the salvagers that were just sitting around. What really surprised them was that a man suddenly popped out of the hole carrying Rex and some girl. Roxas let Rex down from his shoulder and Rex bolted. “Everyone, run! The clients, they’re-!”

 

Suddenly, explosions started to ring out and they were coming from within the ship. “Damn, it looks like they’re here.” Roxas mumbled to himself before yelling out to the crew, “Everyone who’s a crew member of that ship over there, get back on it now! There’s enemies outside of this ship that won’t hesitate to kill you on site!” Those that were within the vicinity immediately booked it back onto the ship, all of them screaming in fear. Another explosion rang out from behind and Roxas turned around to see fire coming out from the entrance.

 

However, that’s not what was surprising at the moment. What was surprising to Roxas was that Nia suddenly sprinted up to him with her Blade. “What the hell?! What are you doing here?!”

 

Nia stopped just a few steps away from him as she got off her Blade. “I wanted to see if I could help out, but…” Nia took a look at Rex behind Roxas to see him trying to wake up the girl, “It looks like he’s got it covered for now.”

 

“Right, and the fact that you were with those guys seems to be suggesting something else entirely. So tell me something, why shouldn’t I kill you on the stop here and now?”

 

“N-No! I’m not like those guys! I’m-!” A sudden explosion rang out and some debris came in its wake. One of those debris was flying through the air and it was about to make an impact towards Nia. Nia turned around in time to see a fragment of the debris heading her way. She stood there in shock as she couldn’t find the energy in her to move out of the way.

 

“God damn it!”

 

Roxas suddenly pulled Nia out of the way and took the hit head on. Enduring the hits will they were on fire was a sure way that the person would either die from the wounds inflicted by it upon impact or they would survive long enough for them to bleed out and die. Somehow, Roxas was able to endure the hits long enough for it to finally end. When it finally calmed down, Roxas was inflicted with holes in his bodies, his left arm broken, hie forehead bleeding and various of scratches and bruises.

 

It was a miracle that Roxas was still standing on his two feet, even by the fracture in his ankle.

 

Nia was in shock to see Roxas still standing like that, with his wounds being fatal. Rex turned around after hearing the explosion to see that Roxas to pull Nia out of the way and taking in the explosion. “Geez…” Just by that voice alone managed to shock both of them back into reality, “I didn’t… think that… it would be that difficult…” Those were Roxas’s last words before he rolled back his eyes and fell to the ground.

 

\------

 

**Roxas’s POV**

 

“And? What happened after that?”

 

“Um, it’s kinda hard to say. Everything happened so fast after I woke up, but when I did, I saw someone-Nia, I think-saved us. Afterwards, we somehow ended up here. I only just woken up when you were down.”

 

“Uh-huh. And this weapon? Why is it in my hand? Last I remember, Rex had it in his hands.”

 

“About that… Rex had it in his hands, yes; But there were some… complications?”

 

“Of what kind?”

 

The girl cleared her throat. “First, I just want to thank you for saving us,” The girl then bowed her head in gratitude. I can only scoff at the notion. Please, I didn’t save you. I just followed you there so that I can fight against those two. They were tough, yeah. But that’s just what makes it more fun, “Second, the reason why you have my weapon.”

 

I looked over to the girl as she had this determined look on her face. “Before I tell you, I'm the-”

 

“Blade of the Aegis. The one that had ended the war 500 years ago, but at the cost of three Titans. Afterwards, Addam, your Driver, put you to sleep so that your powers won’t harm anyone.”

 

The girl looked a bit surprised by my knowledge of the past, but impressively managed to get back on track. “Oh, that would save me some time then. As you may or may not know, there exists a that has been going around for a century or so that states a Blade can have up to two to three Drivers. No one knows what would happen to the Blade should one have that many Drivers. Some say that the Blade would return back to their core, others say that they would… cease to exist.”

 

Oh boy. I don’t like where this is going. “So, wait. The reason you’re telling me this is because…”

 

The girl nodded, confirming my worst suspicion “Yes, it is true whatever it is that you’re thinking right now… You are the Driver of the Aegis and… I have a request.” She then bowed her head down.

 

“I want you to take me to Elysium. That is my request.”

 

…

 

Fuck that shit.

 

“Psh. You’re not the only one who wants to go to Elysium, you know?” The girl lifted her head and stared at me with confusion in her eyes, “I’ve got my sights on Elysium and I’ve been traveling around to find a way to get there, but for some reason, some of the places I’ve been to keep on moving and it’s not the Titans moving that makes this whole damn place confusing!”

 

“Um, could it be that you’re just bad with directions?”

 

“No! It’s not that shit!” I shake my head as to get rid of these thoughts, “Never mind that! Listen, let me tell you one thing and one thing only. I have no interest of being the Driver of the Aegis nor do I want this power of yours.”

 

The girl gasped in shock. “B-But why?! If you were a Driver, you would be able to stand to-”

 

“Oh, so you’re saying that I’m weak then, is that right?”

 

“N-No, I’m-”

 

“Shut the fuck up!”

 

How dare she to insult me like that? Sure, I was pushed back by them, but I was able to hold my own. Even if I’m weak, I can just train and train until I’m strong enough to beat them. What kind of right does she have to say that I’m weak!?

 

“Yes, I did get hit a few times by them and that I’ve managed to end up worse, but I can improve on myself-On my weakness! So what if I been defeated? I’ll get back up and improve even more! Even if the battle had been lost for me, I could still get back up on my own two feet without your fucking power! So don’t say that I’m fucking weak or else the next time you say that I’m weak, **I’LL MAKE SURE THAT YOU WILL BE ERASED FROM THIS WORLD! DO YOU FUCKING UNDERSTAND!?** ”

 

The girl looked like she was about to piss herself, but I couldn’t give a damn about it. I threw the weapon at her and she caught in her hands. “Take back your fucking weapon. I’ve no need of it. I’ll fight with my own strength.” I slowly got back up onto my feet and wobbled over to my stuff. However, as I did, my thought wandered over to _that_ particular minefield. “Hey girl. Did you go through my stuff?” The girl fidgeted in her position and looked away as if she did something bad.

 

Yup, she did something alright. I sighed as I went through my bag. In it was the Switch, some food and water I’ve packed and that core crystal I got from that bandit the other day. “How much did you see?”

 

“Not a whole lot, though I was curious about what was that in your bag…” I said nothing as I just closed the bag, grabbed my sword and sat next to Rex.

 

I couldn’t blame her really. 500 years since the world has changed and someone like her who’s been sleeping for that long would bound to be curious about every little. Still, it annoys me.

 

“Alright, look. I’ll be your Driver and I’ll tell you what you saw, but I’ll do it on one condition.” I thought for a moment before continuing, “I want you to fight alongside with Rex and that you don’t lend me your weapon at all.”

 

The girl seemed confused by my request, so I explained it to her. “As I’ve told you before, I fight with my own strength that I’ve gathered over the course of my travels. I don’t want anything that’s a shortcut to power. Power is something that you have to earn, not give. _That’s_ what I want. Other than that, I’ll tell you when we have the time, alright?” By then, the girl seemed to have the basic’s of my request so I lied on my back to rest my eyes.

 

Hopefully, I’ll have enough energy to train after I take my nap.

 

\------

 

**Pyra’s POV**

 

I’ve never seen anyone that angry before. I’ve seen countless of others being angry, whether it was the state of the war or how others get little rations of food, there was always some people. However, I’ve never seen anyone angry at being a Driver.

 

When Addam was my Driver, he was always willing to help those in need and had this smile that would inspire others to help out. There was not one that was angry with what Addam was doing. Now that I think about it, there was one that had always told Addam off for doing something that reckless. I couldn’t remember that person, but they would also tell them off and Addam would dismiss those worries.

 

On the battlefield was an entire different story. Addam would charge into the front lines and the person would be right behind him. They were the strongest duo that the world had ever seen and yet outside of the battlefield, they bicker with one another. It’s amusing to say the least. Looking back on it now, I’ve realized that the person that was besides Addam was one without a Blade yet it deterred him from being the strongest there was when it comes to fighting.

 

_“If I had a Blade with me, I’d have a companion for life, but if you look at it another way, it’s like they’re giving you the power to become stronger. I don’t want someone to just give me power. I want to earn that power myself. If I had someone with me, then that’s fine. I’d rather have them as a friend, not a source.”_

 

Those were the words that the person told me when I was curious about him. For some reason, that man reminded me alot about that person. In any case, I moved over to Rex and placed his head on my legs. During that battle between that man and Jin, I called out to Rex in his mind. Rex was confused as to who it was calling out to him, but he calmed down after I’ve told him it was me. I told him about Elysium and how it was my dream to go back to it to ask the Architect a question.

 

Why was I born?

 

After hearing my story, Rex immediately accepted my request without any hesitation. In a way, it felt like I was talking to Addam all over again. I told him to once again place his hand on the crystal and once he did, a small light lit in his hand and traveled up his arm. After awhile, the light dimmed down and from there, Rex was the Driver of the Aegis. However, when the bonding process was complete, the man suddenly told him to hold onto the sword and carried him out of the ship.

 

If it hadn’t been for Nia, Dormach and Azurda, we would’ve been…

 

I pushed those dark thoughts out of my head and focused on the present. We’re here now and we’re alive, even if one of us was worse for wear. However, I couldn’t help but think maybe him being my Driver might have been a bad idea. He does seem adamant on not wanting a Blade, only wanting to get stronger by training. Yet, he has this strange device that he has in his inventory. I wonder what it was?

 

My thoughts were interrupted by a groan below me. I looked and saw that Rex was coming to and slowly opened their eyes. “...Pyra…?”

 

I sighed in relief, thinking that he was alright. “Thank goodness that you’re alright. Do you feel anything at all?”

 

“Y-Yeah, I’m fine… I guess. Where…?”

 

“I’m not certain. We must have washed up on some kind of Titan.”

 

“A Titan?” For a few moments, Rex laid there thinking to himself before bolting to his feet, “Where’s Gramps?! And Nia?! A-And Roxas?!”

 

“Roxas? He’s right here.” I gestured my hand over to the sleeping figure, “As for the others… I’m not sure.”

 

Rex sighed in relief at the first one, but then returned to his worrying as he frantically searched around looking for the two. I couldn’t see what Rex saw, but he saw something that made him determined. “We gotta find them! They can’t be far! Get Roxas and let’s go!”

 

“Okay!”

 

“No need for that.”

 

Me and Rex both jolted and turned to face the source of that sudden voice. Roxas had just woken up from his nap was scratching his head. “So, you’re awake Rex.”

 

“Y-Yeah. While I’m glad to see that you’re alright, we need to go! Nia and Dormach are out there somewhere and we need to find them!” Roxas stood up from the ground, strapped his sword to his waist and swung his bag onto his shoulders. He then walked past us, which confused us greatly. Both me and Rex looked at each other as if one of us had the answer to what he was doing.

 

“If you’re not going to come, then those two will die.” Roxas looked over his shoulder, “You don’t want that, do you?”

 

Rex and I got the message and quickly followed behind him, hoping that Nia and Dormach in time.

 

\------

 

By the time that all of them recovered, the day had turned into night and it became too dark for the group to see anything clearly. Pyra was using her fire to help the group light their way through the swamp and see if they could find the previously mentioned people. However, after about an hour searching, they couldn’t find a trace of them.

 

Rex slammed his fist against a tree in frustratioin. “Damn it! Where could they be?!” Pyra looked like she just wanted to burn the entire forest to find them, but refrained from doing as it would only do more harm than good. Roxas, on the other hand, remained indifferent and cautious. While the two were catching their breath from the search, Roxas was looking throughout the forest for any signs of the Titan. _‘Searching through the swamp has already wasted enough time as it is! I guess there comes a time where I have to use the Switch as a guide of sorts just to get through the most annoying parts. Why in the world… You know what, never mind. I don’t want to remember_ that _particular thought.’_ A shiver went up Roxas’s spine as he just remember bits about a particular memory.

 

Roxas turned to towards Rex and Pyra to see them discussing where they should look next. Thinking to himself that it was save, he quietly pulled out the Switch from the bag and turned it on. Looking back to the two, Roxas could still see he was in the clear, but when he pressed the button three times again, Pyra’s head twitched at the sound. Roxas quickly dove for the nearby bushes when Pyra turned her head around. “Huh? Where did Roxas go?”

 

“What do you mean? Isn’t Roxas right…” Rex turned around to see Roxas nowhere in sight. Increasingly confused, Rex looked left and right to try to find Roxas, “Huh?! Wasn’t Roxas just behind us a minute ago?”

 

I, I think so. I thought I heard something and when I turned around, Roxas was gone.”

 

“Ehhhhh!? Then we have to find him! Come on!”

 

“Right!”

 

From there, the two dashed off, unaware that Roxas was still there, just hiding in the bushes for some reason.

 

\------

 

**Roxas’s POV**

 

This might have been a bad idea to begin with.

 

After getting the screen for the Switch back up, I hid in the bushes and decided that now was not the time to show the Switch to them. In the end, that turned out to be a bad idea as Rex and Pyra dashed off towards another direction away from me, thinking that I’ve gone off wandering somewhere. _‘Maybe it’s better this way for now. I don’t think I have the time to explain the Switch to them.’_ Looking around his surroundings, he got out of the bushes and looked at the Switch, “Right, so where are you now old man…?”

 

On the Switch, the screen shows a map showing the entire area. At one part of the map shows two dots indicating Rex and Pyra are at that area. At another part of the map shows a red dot showing Roxas that’s where he needs to go. With this in mind, he headed to where the red dot is located. It only took him a few minutes to reach the destination and upon reaching the destination, he found what he was looking for.

 

In front of him was an injured Titan riddled with numerous of harpoons sticking out of its body. Large amounts of blood were pouring out from the wounds and to top it off, the Titan that was somehow still alive!

 

Esh, talk about stubbornness. Or was it something else…? Eh, who cares? It’s going to die either way.

 

I walked over to the Titan and took in its size along with the amount of harpoons it's got in it. “ *Whistle* How in the world are you still alive? I got to say, that’s impressive.”

 

The Titan attempted to move its head from its position, but was unable to do so. “Who… Who’s there?”

 

“Roxas Ukango. A traveler.”

 

“Roxas…? Ah, I’ve heard of you… the rumored Blade… the one without a Driver…”

 

“Tch, how many times… I’m not a Blade despite what the rumors are telling!”

 

How many times do I have to hear about that rumor? It was a few years back when I was started traveling around Alrest. I’ve ran into a bunch of bandits that were Drivers that tried to rob my blind. Of course, I fought back and I managed to emerge victorious. At the time, I didn’t have that much cash on me, so I turned them into the local authorities. However, when I went to the authorities to get my reward, they asked some questions regarding how I apprehended them. I told them what I did and they looked at me as if I was crazy. After about a couple more questions, they handed me my reward and I headed off my way.

 

I’ve ran into more bandits on my travels and I always manage to beat them up. In some cases, I would go to the authorities with some cuts and bruises and the authorities would always ask me the same questions. I think by that time, someone took notice of how I beated them and spread rumors about me. By that time, the authorities recognized me as the rumored Blade-the one without a Driver.

 

At first, I thought of it as a convenience as I didn’t want to answer any more of the authorities questions and just opted to get my reward. But as time went on, I’ve noticed the stares I’ve been getting from other people whenever I walk into town. Either they were looking at me like I’m a danger to them or something else. I didn’t pay attention at the time until one of the townspeople asked me if I was a Blade.

 

Long story short, everyone thought that I was a Blade.

 

I shook my head to quickly stop myself from thinking too much about the past. “Never mind that. You’re not going to die right now, are you?”

 

The Titan didn’t immediately answer my question, but instead just laughed. To me, it sounded like labored breathing, “I’m… still kicking, am I?”

 

“Well, you do have a bunch of harpoons sticking out of you and you’re bleeding out. Need I say anything else?”

 

“Just… a request… if you’ll listen…”

 

I nodded. I’ve got nothing better to do anyways, “Sure. Make it quick.”

 

The Titan took some more labored breaths. “Please… take care of Rex… that’s all I ask…”

 

Heh, how ironic… Fine then. If that’s how you’re going to play...

 

“Alright, I will. However, don’t come crying when something happens to him. Life is cruel that way.”

 

The Titan gave out a humorless laugh, but after a few more laughs, he coughed up blood. “Yes…  I guess life does… have its ways…” As the Titan spoke, light started to cover its body and it started to disintegrate. I saw the Titan closed its eyes as the light cover the remaining of its entire body.

 

Before I knew it, it was gone.

 

I closed my eyes as I paid my respects to the fallen Titan. “May you rest in peace.”

 

After I said my piece, I heard movement coming from behind. I drew out my sword, turned around  and made a vertical slash. A blade of air was produced from that motioned and it carried on for a about few yards before disintegrating. I stood there in that position for a while before moving back to my neutral state and sheathing my sword. “...If you weren’t dead, then why did you need me to take care of Rex? Surely you’re more suited to take care of him than me.”

 

“Well, I’m sorry for so dramatic about it!”

 

A high nasal voice rang out from the ground and out of it came a little dragon-like creature. Its fur was white pinkish color with a core on its chest. “And secondly, I don’t appreciate you trying to attack me like that!”

 

“Then don’t come from behind me. It’s that simple.”

 

The Titan looked like it wanted to retort, but ended up just sighing. “Anyways, I hope that you’ll hold up your end of the deal.”

 

“Yeah, I know. And you better remember what I said earlier.”

 

“Okay okay… My name is Azurda, by the way.”

 

“Roxas.”

 

With that in mind, Azurda decided to situated himself on my head. While I do feel a bit irritated by this, it didn’t  hinder my abilities to fight back. “Now then, you wouldn’t happen to have seen Rex, have you?”

 

I scratched my head sheepishly. “I had, but we’ve… been separated due to some circumstances. Not sure where he went after that.”

 

Azurda hummed in acknowledgement and I just walked towards another direction of the swamp. Hopefully, I’ll be able to find Rex and Pyra somewhere in this place.

 

\------

 

I was wrong. Well, I’m mean I found someone, just not the one I was looking for.

 

After finding out that Azurda had basically ‘shed’ his old skin and transformed into a little Titan version of himself and searching throughout the swamp, we heard some noises coming from somewhere. I figured that it might have been Rex or Pyra screaming out to us, so we headed there to where the source was. Upon reaching the source of that voice, it wasn’t Rex nor Pyra that we saw. It was Nia along with that Blade of hers fighting against two of those giant frog creatures.

 

Normally, it would take me about three hours to dispatch them, but looking at Nia’s skillsets, it’s clear that she was meant to be a healer. Having this many on you while you’re healing someone would be a problem for them. “Gramps, get somewhere safe and find Rex or Pyra. I’ll handle things from here.” Azurda didn’t say anything and I couldn’t feel his weight on my head, so I can safely assume that he went to do what I asked. I drew out my sword and leaped into the frey. For now, the enemies were busying Nia, so the fact that I used my Air Blast technique to take one by surprise and managed to deal heavy damage to the first one really took the cake.

 

“Huh? It’s you…!” Nia looked shocked to see me still standing like this, all wrapped up in bandages in various places. I ignored her in favor of looking over what our enemies are. Besides the fact that they’re giant frogs, they could shoot out some kind of high pressured water bullets from their mouths. Asides from their hops and ground pounds, that seems to be it for them.

 

“Excuse me, sir!” I looked to my back to see the tiger that was with her back on the ship, “Would you be kind to help us yet again? We wandering these woods looking for someone and got into this predicament!”

 

“Yeah! Even though you don’t trust us, please help. I’ll explain everything to you once this is over.” Nia even looked worse for wear as her clothing had some tears in them.

 

Honestly…

 

“Honestly…” I took a relax stance as I placed my sword on my shoulder, “I’m not here to save you guys nor will I help you guys. This is just a warm-up for me. The next time I meet those guys, they’re going to lose everything…”

 

I smirked as I jumped into the air, sword ready to strike.

 

“ **And I fully intend on them paying with their blood!** ”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Happy Holidays everyone! May everyone's wishes come true!


	3. With this, A New Legend is Born

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Having managing to save Nia and Dormach from those frogs, Roxas tells Rex, Pyra and Azurda about his origins (excluding Nia and Dormach) and what the Switch does and what its purpose is. Having said all that, the group have found themselves in Torigoth where an unexpected turn of events happen. 
> 
> Not only that, someone of Roxas's past has come to be by his side, yet again.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Writing this close towards 2 am in the morning is something that might have become to much of a thing for me. I mean, I planned everything out ahead of time. it's only when I make the chapter that is the problem here! I need drink after this... and a bath... 
> 
> In any case, here's the next one coming your way!

In truth, maybe I shouldn’t have considered them a warm-up. It’s more like a prep for a feast, if you catch my meaning.

 

Usually whenever I would go into a battle, I would assess the enemy on how powerful they are, how smart they are and how they would react to certain situations during a battle. These frogs that I was facing before? All they did was stick their tongue either at me or at Nia in an attempt to eat us. All it took for them to stop completely was to cut their tongue. Rex and Pyra came shortly after we’ve dealt with one of them and I decided to take my break from there and leave it up to them.

 

Shortly after my nap, Nia came and woke me up and I nearly cut off her head for that. Maybe I should get a sign that says I’m sleeping or something… Nah, that would be too annoying to do. In the end, those kids were able to defeat the frogs with some difficulties. Afterwards, we took a break and started a fire.

 

“So that’s what happened Roxas? You just… jumped into a bush?”

 

“Yeah, I thought I spotted someone and tried to follow them. Unfortunately, I got myself lost in the process.”

 

“Don’t scare me like that next time, okay?! I thought you were dead!”

 

“Psh, as if something that weak could stop me.” I stop to take a bite out of the frog meat. Huh, tastes good, “Hmmm, now that I think about it, I have been neglecting my training… I should get back into it.”

 

Rex looked confused, but other than that, he continued to eat the frog meat. I looked over to the rest of the group to see how they were doing. Nia was lying on Dormach’s back and taking in deep breaths. Apparently, performing those Arts of hers can be really taxing on the Driver themselves. Pyra and Azurda were off to the side talking about something. Probably about how Rex accepted to being her Driver and that I was her Driver as well.

 

I still feel pissed about it.

 

“Say, Roxas?” Rex called out to me while I was munching on the leftovers, “I’ve noticed something recently when we first met and that time when we meet with Jin and Malos?”

 

“Really now?” I looked at Rex with a disinterested expression, “Do tell me what is on your illustratious mind. It’s bound to be something interesting, that’s for sure.”

 

“Hey, come on! I’m being serious here! I’ve noticed some kind of glow in your bag whenever you fight and I’ve noticed the same thing when you were knocked out. What was that?”

 

Ohhhhhhhh, he must be talking about the Switch. Since when did the thing glow like that anyways? Ah well, might as well tell him. I’ve got nothing to hide.

 

I pulled out the Switch and showed it to Rex. “What you see right here is the Nintendo Switch. A gaming device known to be a lot more popular from where I came from.” I took note of Rex’s expression and it honestly made me want to burst out laughing. His expression looks as if he just got something on Christmas.

 

“You said it was called the Switch, right? What can it do? How does it work? What purpose does it have? Oh, I’m dying to know about it!” Rex was dangerously close within my space and it was kinda getting creepy here.

 

“Riiiiigggghhhht. You know what I said before, right? It’s just a gaming device. It’s just something that you play games with.”

 

“But does it have some kind of secret features to it like, can it teleport you anywhere?”

 

“Wh-Actually, it can, but only to places where you’ve been.”

 

“Really!? So if we were to go to Elysium, we could teleport there at once?!”

 

“Uh, I guess? I’m not quite sure on that.”

 

“Then why don’t you try it out then?”

 

I wanted to retort that we can’t, but stop myself as I thought about what Rex had said. While it is true that I have been using the fast travel to get to where I needed to go, for some reason, it always lands me somewhere either close or somewhere far off my intended location. However, in those cases I was always alone for that part, but if someone were to travel with me… I selected a random location from the screen and hovered my thumb over on the A button. “Rex, grab on.” While he did look confused, he grabbed onto my arm at my request.

 

After that, I pressed the button and we were gone.

 

\------

 

Teleporting to somewhere familiar is always nauseating to those that have not gone this way before. In this case, traveling back to the trading guild.

 

We landed on something that had some rough land to it and around us was the Cloud Sea. I looked around our new surrounding and I could see that we landed back onto the Titan that was carrying the ship. “Huh, I expected us to get to the entrance of the trading guild, not on top of the Titan.” As I was musing to myself, I heard someone hurling from behind. I turned to see Rex emptying out of his stomach's contents over the Titan, “Yeah, forgot to mention that you might feel sick after that.”

 

Rex looked over as he was wiping away the leftovers from his mouth, “Ha, Ha, Ha… Couldn’t you have mentioned that sooner before you did that…?”

 

I only shrugged as I got up to my feet, wiping away the invisible dust off of my cloak. Rex clearly looked like shit after that fast travel. I couldn’t blame him really. I mean, I went through something like that when I first traveled like that. “So, how was that for your first travel? Not like what you’d expect, huh?”

 

After heaving and huffing, Rex slowly stood up straight. “It was… something, that’s for sure. Where are we anyways?”

 

I pointed towards the edge of the Titan, “See for yourself.”  Rex walked over to the edge and at that time, he immediately took a few steps back before falling onto his butt, “Yup, we’re back at the trading guild, only it’s on top on that Titan that’s carrying the ship.”

 

“H-How are we here?! I’ve never been this high before!”

 

“This was before I meet you. I’ve only just arrived at this place a day ago.”

 

“Wait, you mean you’ve arrived here yesterday!? Then what I’ve heard about a Driver being defeated by someone without a Blade, that was also you?!”

 

“What the hell?! Rumors are already spreading about me!? Damn it! How many times has this been…?!”

 

Rex looked confused by that last comment of mine, but I paid him no mind. I had expected the battle between that bandit and me to have settled down by the time I’ve left the guild, but apparently, my expectation were too high for that. Looks like I’ll have to wait until things settled down here. Until then, time to head off. “Come on, let’s get out of here. Wouldn’t want Pyra to worry her ass off.” Rex nodded and held onto my arm once again. I used the Switch to get back to where we were before.

 

By the time we got back, the forest still looked the same and everything looked the same. The only difference was that the fire was out. Not only that, Pyra, Nia and Dormach were gone as well. “Huh, that’s strange. I thought they were still be here by the time we got back. Strange…”

 

Rex looked around the campfire in confusion. “Um, Roxas? Were there any other features to the travel you did just then? I don’t see them anywhere.” I shook my head and Rex told me that he’ll be back as he went off towards another direction to go find them. Seeing there was nothing to do, I sat down next to a log, placed my bag next to me along with my sword  and removed my cloak that for some reason managed to survive from that battle at the ship.

 

I wasn’t wearing anything that made me stood out, just a simple shirt and some pants. The only thing I had on me was a pouch that had my money in it. Anything else, I placed them inside of the Switch. Don’t ask me on that one, I’ve no idea how that works at all.

 

In any case, I used the Switch, yet again, to bring out my sword maintenance kit and cleaned my sword.

 

\------

 

**Rex’s POV**

 

Having traveling like that was surprising and terrifying. While I will admit I may have been excited at the fact that we could use it to get to Elysium, I was disappointed that we couldn’t get to it until we get there. I didn’t let it get to me as I know that we’ll get there someday. For now, I can be satisfied knowing that there was a way to get there quicker.

 

For now, I need to find the others.

 

I searched around the entire swamp to see if I could find any trace of them. So far, I can only find other creatures that were going about their day. _‘Where could they be? It couldn’t have been that long since we’ve traveled. Maybe I should’ve asked Roxas about that travel features sooner.’_ My thoughts were interrupted by the sound of footsteps behind me. I turned around to face whoever or whatever it was and saw that it was Pyra. She looked worse for wear when I last saw her, but for some reason, she looked like she had just ran for awhile without stopping. When she looked at me, her eyes started to swell up and she glomped onto me.

 

“Oh! Thank goodness that you’re safe! I was so worried!” I tried my best not to blush when she’s pressing her chest against me, but I couldn’t stop the blush on my face.

 

“I-I’m fine Pyra! I’ve only been gone for about a minute!”

 

“A minute?! You’ve been gone for about a day! Nia and I thought that something happened to you!”

 

“What?! A day!? We’ve been gone for a day!?” I was at a lost. A day? Could it be that traveling using Roxas’s Switch would have a time difference in them? That could be the case, but I can’t be sure of it yet. Not until I talked with Roxas again. Managing to pry off Pyra, I quickly told her about where we were and what had happened. She had this knowing look on her face as I explained the events that had just happened. From what I can tell, it’s either that she already knew about the device or she must have extensive knowledge on that device.

 

Either way, we’ll find out about Roxas’s device soon enough.

 

We’ve made our way back towards the camp and upon reaching the camp, we could see Roxas sharpening his sword but also Nia and Dormach were at Roxas’s side. Nia was bickering with Roxas on how he just disappeared like that along with me. Dormach was off to the side just watching the two, not sure on what should he do.

 

“Where did you go!? Did you know how worried we were when you just disappeared like that?!”

 

“Ah, shut up Nia. We’re not dead, isn’t that good enough for ya?”

 

“No! No, it’s not!”

 

“So, us dying is good enough for you? Well, I can tell why. You were with them to begin with. Who’s to say that you’ll stab us in the back?”

 

“I told you before, I’m not with them anymore! If I wanted you dead, I would’ve killed you right here and now!”

 

“You were when we first met on that ship. Who’s to say that you’re still working for them as an undercover agent for them?”

 

Nia just groaned out in frustration as she went back to Dormach-who looked like he wanted to comfort Nia but couldn’t find it in him to do so-and plopped right down on him. Rex, on the other hand, went back to sharpening to his sword and acted like nothing happened. I took a seat next to Rex and Pyra sat right next to me. Suddenly, as I sat down, something was thrown my way and I fumbled for a bit before managing to get a grip on it. What I saw shocked me.

 

It was my old sword. The one that I had with me before all of this happened.

 

“I’ve noticed that your sword was in a bad shape and decided to give it a fix-er-up.” Roxas said while still maintaining his own sword, “Consider it a favor from one swordsman to another.”

 

I couldn’t find the words to thank him for helping me with this. Although I do have the weapon of the Aegis, it’s nice to have the same weapon that I had with me since I started salvaging. I took a look at the newly polished sword that Roxas handed it to me.

 

My old sword’s blade looked as if it had never been combat before and the handle looked the same as ever. With its pristine polished look, it looked like it can cut down enemies faster than before. “Thank you Roxas! But, I am curious about something. Why did you have my old sword? I thought I lost it on that ship.”

 

Roxas stopped what he was doing and put away what I can tell is to be a maintenance kit. “You should know by now that Drivers, like you and Nia, uses the ether around us to use Arts to fight. I’ve figured what would happen if anyone were to disturb the ether, we can’t any of the Arts. Not only that, Blades won’t be able to give their powers to their Drivers.”

 

“It’s true,” Pyra added. “There were times when a Blade couldn’t give their powers to their Drivers, making them vulnerable. It was something that many people took advantage of.”

 

Roxas nodded. “Yeah. If we were to encounter something or someone like what Pyra said, then it would be a pain in the ass to deal with. Using a weapon that doesn’t require the powers of a Blade would be easier to use and a lot more helpful.”

 

I couldn’t find any flaws in that logic as I had seen something like that before back at Argentum Trade Guild, but there was something that has been bothering me. “Say Roxas? How was it that you’ve managed to do those Arts? You don’t have a Blade, yet you’ve been able to use them as if you have one.”

 

“It’s because of this.” Roxas took out the Switch from the bag, “That’s the reason why I’m able to use these Arts of mine.”

 

“Oh, this is…?” Roxas nodded and handed it over to Pyra. Pyra took great care in not dropping it while checking the Switch, “Fascinating. A device like this is something unheard of. I can’t imagine what kind of features it has.”

 

“Well, if it makes it any better,” I decided to join in while putting away my sword. “Roxas’s Switch has the ability to get us anywhere in Alrest. It’s just has to be a place where we’ve been before.”

 

“Is that so…?” I don’t know why, but I could hear a sad tone in her voice. However, that quickly changed when she went back to her normal self, “Is there anything else that the Switch could do?”

 

Roxas thought for a moment before snapping his fingers. He snatched back the Switch and messed around the with it before he pressed something. Not a moment later and something popped up in front of me. There was this screen with a picture of me in my salvager suit and some pictures with words on them. “What you’re seeing right now is something I like to call the ‘equipment screen’. As the name suggests, it lets you equip what is best for each situation we’re going to encounter. Not only that, since you’re the Driver Rex, you’re allowed to equip up to three Blades.”

 

“That much is true to what you said Roxas,” Gramps also joining in our conversation, “Drivers are not restricted to just one Blade. A Driver can have up to as many Blades as they can. It’s how many Drivers today get stronger.”

 

I was shocked to hear about me having up to three Blades. I’ve heard stories that Drivers could be allowed up to that many Blades, but having something confirmed this way is something else entirely. “How do you know all of this Roxas? Were you a Driver?”

 

“Nope,” Roxas bluntly said. “I never was a Driver. I’ve told you before, remember? I’m not a Blade nor I’m a Driver. I’m just me from a different world.”

 

“Oh, okay.”

…

 

…

 

“Wait, what?!”

 

\------

 

**Roxas’s POV**

 

I looked at the other’s expression as I had just said where I was. Rex and Pyra looked completely shocked, Azurda had this shocked expression and I couldn’t see Nia and Dormach’s expression, but I think I know what their expression is. Honestly, I had expected this when I first came here. I’ve told numerous of people where I came from and even showed them the Switch. However, most people didn’t even let me show them that I was serious and would either laugh at me or beat me up. Since then, I just tell them where I’m really from and if they had doubts about where I’m from, then it’s their fault.

 

Now, I’m at a crossroad. I could either continue telling them about my world or I just end the conversation. Before I could do anything, I was bombarded with questions from Rex. I wasn’t paying attention to most of the questions, but the ones that I could pick up were ‘What’s your world like?’ and ‘Is there enough land for everyone?’.  I hit Rex in the head as to get him to stop asking so many questions. Once things calm down a bit, I answered them truthfully to the best of my abilities.

 

Rex had this look of a child that just got something he wanted for Christmas. It’s kinda funny, in a way that makes you pity the boy. There might be land at my world, but if everyone were to come to my world, then what? What would happen after that? ...Best not to think about it too much. I’m going to have a migraine for this.

 

In any case, that managed to get Rex off my back and satisfied everyone around me. By that time I finished any questions given to me, we decided that it was time to get moving. Nia said that she’ll take the lead as this place was familiar to her. Somehow along the way, they got lost in the woods somewhere and left me in somewhere. After some more walking, I found myself somewhere with a small pond in front of me. “Where is everyone? You’d think that Nia know’s this place by now…” Thinking nothing of it, I turned around and walked back from where I came from.

 

I ended up coming back to the pond again. Confused by this, I went off towards another direction.

 

Then another… then another… then another...

 

\------

 

**Few Hours later**

 

“OH COME ON! WHY DO I KEEP COMING BACK HERE?! IS THIS WHOLE PLACE MOVING OR SOMETHING!?”

 

I growled in frustration as I keep coming back towards the small pond. Why is it that everytime I go off in a different direction, I end up coming back here!? My sense of direction is not that bad to begin with! Feeling angry by this, I stormed off towards _another_ direction, hoping that I can get out of here.

 

_DRIP… DRIP… DRIP…_

 

Something was dripping behind me into the small pool. At first, I thought there was water dripping from the roots above, but now that I think about it, there were no roots around me. I placed my hand on my sword and prepared myself for a possible ambush. After a tense moment, something was breathing down my neck and I steeled my nerves. “It’s okay… Put away your weapon… And face me…”

 

That voice, why does it sound familiar?

 

Not taking any chances, I drew out my sword and took a swung at the figure behind me. The figure managed to dodge my blade, taking a step back. When I got a look at the figure, I could see that the figure was a woman wearing some kind of teal kimono. Her core was a light blue and it showed itself on the kimono where the chest is. She also had black hair that was shaped in a bun of sorts. Her weapon was a katana that has a blade made of ice. The sheath of the katana was also ice, but when the katana is pulled from the sheath, ice shards form from the sheath. Not only that, she was also standing in the pond.  

 

Wait a minute… AH! “Yuki?! What the hell?!”

 

Yuki bowed her head and looked at me with eyes filled with happiness the moment she looked at me. “I am back. I’m honored that you still remembered me after all these years apart, my Master.” I let out a _tch_ as I remember that particular memory.

 

Back when I was roaming Alrest, I came across a group of bandits that had tried to rob me of my belongings. Naturally, I managed to defeat them and was about to turn them in to the authorities when something fell out of one of the bandits belongings. I took it and realized that it was a core crystal. After sending the bandits to the authorities way, I made my way to a clearing and resonate with it as I had nothing better to do. Once Yuki came out, she looked a bit surprised that I was her Driver, but nonetheless, she became my Blade.

 

Afterwards, we got ourselves in a skirmish of sorts against some creatures. I charged ahead using my sword to cut down the enemies and Yuki was alongside me during the battle. However, she did tried to give me her weapon every now and then. I told her that I didn’t want it and that I wanted to fight using my own weapon. She persisted that she wanted to give me her weapon and that complicated things. Once the battle was over, I showed her my techniques to stop her from giving me her weapon and to stop her from giving me looks like I’m weak. She didn’t say anything after that showcase and I was getting worried about her when she doesn’t say anything. Suddenly, she kneeled in front of me saying that she wants to learn how I did those techniques so that she’ll better herself.

 

I’m not that good at teaching others very well, so I told her the first thing on my mind. That answer was that she’s to go on a journey and get stronger so that she’ll get better at protecting me. With that in mind, she immediately set off to get stronger. The ‘Master’ part came in later when we would meet every so often. It was annoying, but I’ve dealt with it in the past.

 

And now she’s back, but I could tell that she’s gotten a lot stronger since the last time we’ve meet.

 

“My Master, we have not meet in over two years. I was wondering where you went.”

 

“Damn it Yuki! I’m not your master!” Crap, looks like not hearing her say that must’ve broken my resistance. I quickly shook my head, “So, what brings you here? Feel like your journey’s over?”

 

I expected her to say no and just give me an update on her journey, but surprisingly, she nodded. “Yes. I feel as though I’ve grown since we last saw each other. “ She says while crossing the small pond. I could see that she was leaving behind a small trail of ice in her path, “In addition, I felt your presence disappeared for a minute and then reappeared somewhere. I felt worried about your health so I rushed over-”

 

“To see if I was alright and to see if you were strong enough.” I finished for her. While having her around does help me see if she’s gotten stronger or not, Rex and the others don’t know that I’ve made a pact with her nor do they know that she’s a Blade.

 

I’ve practically lied to them about me having a Blade. Yes, I do have one, but I’ve only considered her as a human, not a fucking Blade! Shit, what the hell do I tell them now!?

 

...Hold on. This might be crazy enough to work.

 

By the time that I was finished with my planning, Yuki somehow managed to come close to my face, but I didn’t mind as I had other ideas. I pushed Yuki away from my face and placed my hands on her shoulders. “Yuki. Can you do me a favor? Can you hide your core?”

 

Yuki looked confused by my request, but accepted it. She used her ice powers to conceal her core on her chest. Now it looks like… I have no idea how to describe it, but let’s just say a cloth is over her core, alright? “Is this better?”

 

I nodded. “Yeah, that’s good. The reason why I had you do that is because we’re going to find some people that I was with.”

 

“Oh? I thought you traveled alone.”

 

“I did and I still will. However, there are some that I can’t afford to do that right now.”

 

“Wh- Oh… you’ve told them your secret.”

 

“I honestly expect them to just wave off the truth, but they actually believed me.”

 

“Huh, I expected you to just throw them away or ignore them after that.”

 

“Yeah, tell me about it. I mean, I showed them the Switch and for some reason, it doesn’t turn on whenever I wanted to. Now, it turns on from either you being here or those people I’m with!”

 

“Uh-huh, and who are these people that you are traveling with?”

 

“I’ll tell you when we meet them. For now, let’s go.”

 

Yuki nodded and the two of us headed off. However, that quickly ended as we just found out way back to the pond.

 

...Maybe I should let Yuki take the lead this time.

 

\------

 

**Exactly five hours later**

 

“God fucking damn it! We’re finally out!”

 

By the time we finally managed to get out of the forest, it was getting dark. We found ourselves on a path that lead to the entrance of the forest that we were just in and in front of us was a massive field filled with all sorts of creatures. I could see a town just off towards the horizon filled with some lights in most of the buildings.

 

But, most importantly, we were _finally_ out! “I never thought we were going to get out of there!” I could hear Yuki giggle behind me, but I didn’t pay any mind to that. As we were walking towards the town, Yuki told me how her journey went and what she did. At one point during her journey, she had run into someone that was a bit stronger than her. It was some kind of fire-type Blade that she had run into. The only reason as to how she managed to get away was that she used her own ice to create a smokescreen to flee.

 

While I myself don’t use these tactics, I could see that it does have some merit to it. Taking note of your opponent before engaging them again in the future. That’s one way in winning combat.

 

Still, not my way of going about a battle.

 

I adopted a thinking pose and pointed over to the town. “Hmm, how far do you think that town is from here?”

 

Yuki hummed in thought before answering. “I would say about 50 to 100 feet from where we are now.”

 

“Good. I need some kind of warm-up before we get into any combat.”

 

“Are you thinking…?” I didn’t say anything as I crouched down with my hands on the ground in front of me with my left leg bent and my right leg outward, “What say you and I have a race?” Yuki didn’t say anything, but I could feel her competitive aura oozing out of her. I smirked as I could see that she hadn’t lost that part of her, “Alright! Three…”

 

Yuki lets out an icy air, “Two…”

 

“One! **Air blast!** ”

 

Using the wind to help me gain the advantage, I sped off with great speed towards town. I look behind, expecting to see Yuki falling behind. However, I was surprised to see that Yuki was keeping up with me. That surprise quickly fade away as I saw Yuki using her ice powers to make an ice trail that allowed her to move faster. Not one to give up easily, I used the Air blast technique once more to gain the lead and Yuki did the same. We’ve continued this pattern for more than two minutes.

 

“I’m surprised Yuki! You’re actually keeping up!”

 

“After seeing how strong you were, I wanted to be on the same level as you. This is the result of my journey.”

 

“Ha! Keep this up and you’ll-!” I stopped myself as I felt something in the air. Something… powerful. Yuki must’ve noticed as well if she didn’t say anything. That and the fact she was letting out a murderous aura around her. We both knew what this means…

 

I immediately changed directions towards the huge presence with Yuki and tow. The town was in sight and we could see the amount of lumber that they had in front of the town. Most of the people that were working saw us moving at incredible speed and were forced to move out of the way. By the time we’ve reached towards the entrance, we jumped high into the sky. We soared through the air and as we were descending, I gather enough air beneath to cushion the fall and beside me, Yuki had managed to make an ice path leading down. We touchdown to the ground, grabbed our respective weapons and faced our opponents.

 

I then smirked as I saw who I was facing.

 

“How do you do?”  

 

\------

 

Back at the forest a few hours back, Roxas had managed to get himself lost with Rex’s group, so they had to make their way towards to Torigoth, Nia’s hometown. They had reason to believe that Roxas somehow managed to find his way towards there and hurried over to meet up with him. They’ve managed to get their within record time and upon reaching the town, they were greeted with a sight where there was a gathering of people around two heavily armed people. In front of them was a core crystal sitting on top of a box. Nia told them that it was a Driver requirement where the Empire of Mor Ardian is recruiting people that have the aptitude to become Drivers and fight on the frontlines. Rex then thought back to what Roxas had said to him about having many Blades at his arsenal.

 

Azurda saw Rex’s thoughtful look and began to realize what Rex was thinking. Ever since Azurda had that talk with Pyra, he was worried that Rex would get involved in something that could be life-threatening. Pyra also shared the same thought, but both knew that Rex would get involved regardless of what has happened. Not only that, with Roxas in as well along with that ‘Switch’ of his, things would only get more hectic from here.

 

Azurda gave Rex a core crystal from...somewhere and handed to Rex. Knowing that Rex would need more power in hopes to get stronger to face whatever opponents they may encounter in the future, he resonated with the crystal. After a few seconds, a female humanoid figure stood by Rex’s side. It had twin long ponytails and her eyes were filled with blue. Her body was also tinted with silver and black with her chest being silver and the rest being black. Her core rested on her chest. Before Rex could greet her, she disappeared. Everyone was worried about what had happened to the Blade and frantically looked around for the missing Blade.

 

As everyone was looking, they spotted three wanted posters on a notice board. Two of them were posters of Jin and Malos. The last one… Nia tore it down before anyone else could see it. Dormach gave an explanation to everyone that they were part of an organization called Torna. Torna’s purpose was unknown as Nia had only joined them because she had nowhere to go. Somehow during the conversation, Rex’s mind wandered back to the Switch and how it had an equipment screen for him.

 

Suddenly, he remembered. His Blade was in the equipment screen. Rex was excited and was about to tell everyone, but he remembers one thing. He couldn’t access the equipment screen without Roxas. Still, he told everyone about it and assumed that Roxas will them everything once they’ve meet up with him. (By everyone, I mean Nia and Dormach, seeing as they were asleep during the explanation.)

One thing led to another and the group found themselves locked into battle with some of the troops from Mor Adrain.

 

“Damn! How many are there?!” Rex was doing fairly well against them. Since the sword was almost the same as his old sword, he immediately used the techniques Azurda taught him.

 

“It doesn’t matter!” Nia had cut down one of the troops that was blocking the way, “We have to go, now!”

 

“Right!” After defeating another one, he quickly ran towards Nia and they quickly ran away. That is, until a blue wall of fire suddenly appeared in front of them cutting of their escape, “What the-?! A wall made of fire?!”

 

“Such a commotion.” A voice rang out from behind and the group turned around to see a woman walking up to them. The woman had blue long hair that was made of fire, blue dress with a bit of cleavage showing down the middle. Her arms and legs were also blue fire and her weapon were two twin blades. Her forehead glowed in the shape of a ring.

 

This was Lady Brighid, one of the strongest Blade of Mor Ardain.

 

“L-Lady Brighid!” One of the troops saluted to her when she approached the group.

 

“Brighid? Is she a Blade? Where’s her Driver?” Rex looked behind her as he tries to find her Driver.

 

“My Driver is otherwise engaged at present. I am here alone.”

 

“No… Driver?” Rex was confused by this, but that quickly vanished as he remember Roxas being strong enough to take on both Drivers on his own.

 

“Lady Brighid! These miscreants are working for Torna!” The one closer to Brighid, the captain, then bowed his head, “Please lend me your strength to bring them to justice!”

 

“Torna?” She then scanned the group with an analytical look and when her eyes laid onto Pyra, she widen in mild shock, “That emerald core crystal… Could it really be true?” Brighid hummed as she swiped her weapon, “Well, Well. Captain Padraig, you are not to kill them. Take these ones alive.” She finishes as she gets into her battle stance.

 

Captain Padraig saluted again, “Roger! Men, bring in the you-know-what!” The other troops quickly replied with a ‘Sir!’ and went off to grab that you-know-what. He then took his place next to Brighid and both were ready for battle.

 

Rex, Nia, Pyra and Dormach once again ready themselves for battle as they were prepared to face their opponents. However, as they were about to charge, the air around them suddenly picked up, causing both groups to cover their eyes. (Captain Padraig, being the exception.) As the air died down, everyone could see who was it that caused the sudden flow of air. Roxas stands in between the two groups with his sword drawn out and besides him was a woman.

 

“How do you do?” Roxas says after a few tense seconds.

 

“Roxas! Where were you!? We looked everyone for you!” Rex bursted out yelling towards Roxas.

 

“Geez, tone down that voice, alright? I got lost.”

 

“You got lost? Where?”

 

“In the forest. Did you guys leave without me or something?”

 

“Wha-?! You were the one that left us!”

 

“No way! You guys just left me!”

 

Rex was bewildered by that accusation, but remembering the situation that they were in, he quickly pushed back those thoughts for another day. “Never mind that! Are you going to fight them?”

 

Roxas looked at the two and scoffed. “The one on the left? No, he’s so weak that he couldn’t last for more than a minute!” The guard heard that and stomped his foot in frustration as Roxas insulted him, “However, for her…” He shifted his gaze towards Brighid and gave out a bloodthirsty smile, “She looks like a good warm-up.”

 

“Master.” Yuki called out to Roxas, “Could you let me handle this? I wished to show you the progress of my training.” Roxas didn’t say anything, but sighed as he put his sword away. He walked past Yuki and gave her a look. Yuki understood the message and prepared herself for battle.

 

Roxas took a sit next to some boxes and watched on, eager to see how Yuki progressed.

 

“Show me what you can do Yuki!” Rex muttered under his breath. Meanwhile, everyone around them was extremely confused by this turn of events and decided that it was not worth trying to figure things out and instead watch the fight that’s about to happen.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Merry Christmas everyone! May all of you have your wishes come true!


	4. An Unknown Annoyance appears.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> To which is the aftermath of the battle. Rex is left with Roxas's Switch and is curious to see what else it can do. 
> 
> Meanwhile, Roxas is left to pick up the pieces of the aftermath.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys! I'm back with another chapter and I'm not dead! Just had to spend some time with my family before they went back to college. Soon enough, I'll be heading back as well, but not today Sonny! In any case, expect some of the chapters to be... random at best. It's the only thing of how I can describe my life going on right now. 
> 
> However, that won't stop me from writing this! Without further ado, enjoy!

If one were to look at Torigoth, they would see a peaceful town filled with the Gormotti, just walking through the town. One would see the stalls packed with people buying produces for their families. The birds were singing, the people were busying themselves with their work. In a way, it was another peaceful day in Gormott…

 

“ **Ice Blast!** ”

 

“ **Heat Haze!”**

 

_ BOOOOOOOOOMMMM!  _

 

A huge steam explosion suddenly rang out into the peaceful day, causing every Gormotti within distance to stop and look at the smoke rising into the sky. Soon, another explosion took place in the same direction and everyone started to run away for fear that they could get caught in whatever is going on. 

 

At the sight of the explosion were two figures battling with everything they’ve got. One cladded in a teal kimono was using her ice powers to freeze the other one cladded in fire, but it seemed hopeless as she herself was using her fire to melt away the ice. The two then clashed blades with one another, causing a small shockwave. Roxas was leaning against a nearby wall watching Yuki as she battled against Brighid.  _ ‘It seems that Yuki wasn’t kidding when she told me that she gotten stronger. Her form looks good, her speed excelles from when we meet last time, although her strength is currently lacking. Other than that, her Agile form has gotten a lot stronger. However...’  _ Roxas took a look at Yuki to see her breathing heavily,  _ ‘Her stamina is still lacking. Well, it’s something we’ll have to improve once this battle’s over.’  _

 

With that in mind, he continued watching the fight. 

 

Yuki and Brighid were at a standstill as they locked blades once more. Sparks were flying in all directions the minute both combatants clashed. By the time they pushed each other away, Yuki was on her knee trying to catch her breath. Brighid, on the other hand, looked completely fine. “I’m impressed. I’ve never encountered another Blade like you.”

 

“Ha… Ha… I didn’t expect you to know that I’m a Blade already. In any case, don’t you remember? We’ve faced each other before… five years ago…”

 

“We did? ...Ah, I remember. You were the ‘ _ The Hunter of Ice _ ’ as most of the people know you only by that name.”

 

“Hm, Due to our opposing elements, I had no chance of facing you. Now, I stand before you once again, to see if I had gotten stronger since facing you.”

 

“To be honest, I was hoping that you would show up again.”

 

“Oh? And why would that be?”

 

Brighid twirl with her sword a bit before speaking to Yuki. “I don’t know why, but when I fought you for the first time, I felt something in my beat. Something… nostalgic.” Brighid shook her head before pointing her sword at Yuki, “Don’t pay any mind about what I said. You’re with Torna and I have to take you in.”

 

Yuki looked at Brighid with a small smile, “Try to take me down then.” Yuki then crouched with one leg in front and the other leg in the back. She placed her hand on the sheath of her sword and icy wind started to swirl around her, “How about we end this in one strike?”

Brighid gave a  _ hmph  _ sound as she readied her swords as well. Fiery wind started to swirl around Brighid as well. Both were charging up however many energy they have to convert it into their last attack. 

 

Then, they moved. 

 

As they collided with one another, a bright light followed by a thick smoked covered the entire area around them. Rex’s group, Roxas and Captain Padraig covered their eyes as the smoke blanked them. Rex’s group were all being pushed back while trying to call out to each other. Captain Padraig tried to stand firm on the ground, but later came flying away. Roxas managed to redirect the wind away from him so that he’ll still be standing. Once the wind had died out and the smoke began to clear, one figure stood in the smoke and the other was lying on the ground. 

 

“You were strong indeed…” A voice rang out from the smoke, causing Roxas to sigh. As soon as the smoke managed to clear away, Brighid stood the victor as Yuki laid on the ground, “However, you still have a long way to go.” 

 

“Should’ve figured that something like this would happen…” Roxas shook his head at the display, but couldn’t help but feel proud of Yuki. Sure, she gotten stronger than the last they meet, but just as he thought before, Yuki still needed some additional training. 

 

“Why you-!” Suddenly, Nia and Dormach leaped into the air and charged at Brighid. Brighid looked up at the two, but didn’t make a move to stop or intercept them. Instead, two yellow nets came flying past them and it managed to snare the both of them in the nets. Both tried to break free of the nets, but found it impossible as it seems to have drained of their energy. “What the…? I feel tired…”

 

“Bwahahaha! How do you like that terrorist?! Captain Padraig mocked them as Nia and Dormach struggled to break free, “Let’s see you use your precious Arts when you can’t draw ether from the atmosphere!”

 

“Even Blades have such weakness. This is one such weakness., Brighid joined in, “Without the flow of ether, Blades are quite useless.” 

 

“Nia! Dormach!” Rex started to run in to help them.

 

Before Rex could take another step, Nia called out to him. “Get out of here Rex! Save yourself!” 

 

“I’m not going to do that! I can’t just leave you here!”

 

“And you won’t have to.” Before any of them knew what was going on, Roxas slashed the net, freeing both Nia and Dormach and were hurl through the air. They crashed into Rex, making him dizzy for a moment before regaining his focus, “Leave this one to me. I’ve been itching for a fight. Oh, and one more thing.” Roxas threw his bag at Rex and while he was confused by this, he caught it. “Keep  _ that  _ safe. You don’t, I’ll kill you, understand?”  

 

Rex looked like he wanted to help, but one look from Roxas was all it took to stop him. “Just don’t do anything stupid!” With that, he hefted the bag onto his shoulder and bolted away. Nia, Dormach and Pyra soon followed after Rex, but not before looking back at Roxas. Soon after, it was just Roxas, Yuki, Brighid and the other soldiers. 

 

“Quick! Don’t let them get away!” The other soldiers ran past Brighid and tried to get past Roxas. However, Roxas swung his blade at the soldiers before they could take another step. Everyone covered their eyes to prevent any dust from getting into their eyes. When the wind died down, they could see Roxas carrying Yuki towards a nearby wall and placing her down gently. 

 

“I’m sorry, Master… I…” Yuki quietly told Roxas as he set her down.

 

Roxas shook his head and spoke in the same volume as Yuki, “Don’t be. You did great on that fight.”

 

“I don’t… Can I leave… the rest to you?” Roxas nodded and Yuki smiled all the while closing her eyes. After that, Roxas stood up and walked back to face Brighid and the group of soldiers.

 

“So, you’re her master.” It was more like a fact than a question, “Then you must be her Driver.” 

 

“Yeah, though I wish that she’d stop calling me Master. It’s getting annoying.” Roxas said as he twirled his sword before resting it on his shoulder, "Well, it doesn’t matter. Right now, I’m taking her place for this battle. I hope you won’t mind.”

 

“It matters not who I face. What matters now is to bring you in.”

 

“Ha! Then I like to see you try!” Roxas brought back his sword besides his head and brought out his right hand in front of him, “The name’s Roxas…” 

 

Then, he charged in. 

 

“ **_The one that’s going to kick your ass!_ ** ”

 

\------

 

**Meanwhile**

 

In an undisclosed location somewhere in Alrest, there were two people hurdled close to a screen in front of them. The one sitting in front of the screen was a little girl with white long hair tied into twin ponytails with a hairpin that has a smiley face on it, a red one-piece dress that went down to her knees, pale white skin and an eyepatch on her left eye. She looked up to the person standing next to her while pointing to the screen, “Why can’t we join in yet? That looks like fun!”

 

The person that she was pointing to was a boy that looked to be the same age as the girl with the same skin complexion, but had a black tuxedo and an eyepatch on his right eye. He chuckled as he patted her head, “Soon, dear sister. Right now, Roxas is currently fighting someone that he’ll lose to.”

 

“Ehhhhh? Wasn’t it Roxas that proclaimed ‘ _ He’ll never lose to anyone _ ?’”

 

“That, dear sister, is why Roxas will forever be at the palm of our hands. No matter what he does, no matter the choices he makes, he will always find his way back to our hands.”

 

“Hehehe! But that didn’t answer my question, dear brother.”

 

“Let’s just say, I have a much better idea for Roxas.”

 

The girl widen her eyes as she realized what the boy was about to do. She then gave a malevolent grin as she turned her attention back to the screen, “Then dear brother, make sure it’s the biggest surprise to Roxas. I can’t wait to see what his expression would be like!”

 

The boy had a the same smile as the girl and bowed as he made his way out, “It shall be done, dear sister.”

 

\------

 

**Elsewhere, back to Rex’s group**

 

Rex and the others were running from the soldiers that were chasing after them. While Roxas was able to prevent some of the soldiers from following them, few were able to pass Roxas and give chase. Nia was riding on Dormach while Rex and Pyra were right beside them. 

 

“There they are!” The group turned back to see the group of soldiers right behind them, “Don’t let them get away!”

 

“Tch! They don’t just give up, do they?!” Nia let out a frustrated sigh. While they were getting some distance away from the soldiers, Rex, Pyra, Nia and Dormach knew that they were quickly running out of places to run. As they were turning around the corner, they could see a bridge leading towards another platform, “There! We can get out of here through there!”

 

“Right! Then let’s-!” As Rex was talking to the others, soldiers suddenly appeared on the bridge and were rapidly approaching the others. Rex and the others just stopped right at the way towards the bridge, “What the-!? How did they know we were here?!”

 

“They must’ve sent out troops to intercept us.” Dormach said, “It doesn’t look like we can go that way.”

 

“Then what are we supposed to do then?!” Rex pulled out his Driver weapon along with Nia and prepared themselves for battle. As they were mentally preparing themselves, Rex thought back to what Roxas said about how Blades couldn’t give their powers to their Drivers. Rex put away his Driver weapon and pulled out his old sword that was attached to his waist.  _ ‘Best to be safe, just in case.’ _ With that in mind, Rex ran towards his group’s side and readied for battle. 

 

As the soldiers made their way closer and closer to the group, the other soldiers that were just following them were starting to round the corner. “Shit! I forgot about them!” Rex and Pyra turned to face the group following them.

 

“Wait Rex! What about the ones on the bridge?!” Nia was starting to get worried as the soldiers on the bridge starting to get near and near.

 

“If we don’t deal with our chasers, then we’re done for!”

 

“But if we don’t deal with the soldiers on the bridge, then we’re  _ really  _ done for!”

 

The situation around them was getting more and more hectic as they had no idea on who to face. Suddenly, as if someone had heard their prayer, something came flying past the group. Two small projectiles flew towards the group of soldiers on the bridge and the group of soldiers chasing them. As soon as the projectiles made contact with the ground, smoke came out of the them causing the soldiers on the bridge and the ones chasing them to be blinded for a bit. Rex, Pyra, Nia and Dormach were confused by this chain of events as they stood there in shock. “...What just happened there?”

 

“No time!” Startled by the voice, Rex’s group turned around and saw a Nopon standing behind a fake wall, “Friends should hurry here!” Seeing no choice, they hurried to where the Nopon is and the Nopon quickly closed the fake wall.

 

After the smoke cleared, the two group of soldiers looked around to find the terrorist group nowhere. “Find them! Don’t let them escape!” They then splitted up once more to find them.   

 

Only, Rex’s group were already long gone.

 

\------

 

**Rex’s POV**

 

After we managed to get away from those soldiers, the Nopon that rescued us introduced himself as Tora. As we were walking, Tora lead us to his home and offered us some shelter until the soldiers that were chasing us give up. Tora’s home looked comfy with a ladder leading up to the second floor, a kitchen area in the living room and another part of the room closed off with a curtain. Pyra offered to cook us some dinner while we talked with Tora. Tora asked us why Brighid was attacking us in the first place. We told Tora about what had happened when we got here and Tora had this look of excitement. 

 

Later on in our conversation, Tora told us that he wanted to be a Driver as well. However, he couldn’t become a Driver as he didn’t have the aptitude for it. He ended up having a nosebleed for three days! Instead, Tora, his grandpa and his dad made something that will helped them reached their dream. However, it ended up short as his grandpa passed a while back and his dad was nowhere to be seen. 

 

Tora lead us to the part of the room where there was a curtain and when he pulled it back, we were surprised by the project they were building.

 

It was an artificial Blade! I’ve never seen anything like it!

 

The artificial Blade had short purple hair that was tied into twin ponytails, a red cloth wrapped around her neck and her body was all metal. It was astonishing to see something like this first-hand! However, Tora reminded us that it still needed just a few more parts before it could be completed. Tora wanted our help in finding the parts so that he can finish the project and help us get Roxas back. I didn’t want him to get caught by the military, but with the way things are going, I reluctantly accepted his help. 

 

The day went by and soon enough, it was nighttime. Everyone went asleep in various places. I couldn’t sleep on the account that Pyra was sleeping right next to me on the floor. I slowly placed the blanket covering us and placed the blanket on Pyra. With sleep eluding me for a while, I made my way towards the hallway back outside. 

 

_ ‘Ugh, I know I accpeted Pyra as my Blade, but I didn’t think that she be sleeping next to me like this!’  _ I couldn’t help but sweatdrop at that,  _ ‘I didn’t being a Driver would cause this to happen! This is so embarrassing!’  _ Feeling a blush forming on my face, I quickly shook my head to get rid of the thought. 

 

I watched the Cloud Sea for… I think about thirty minutes and while I didn’t think about my situation with Pyra, I couldn’t help but think back about the advice that Roxas gave me a while back. 

 

**000**

 

_ “While Drivers do get their powers from their Blades, Blades are essentially useless on their own if they have to rely on their Driver to finish the job. Not only that, Blades get their power from the ether and afterwards, they give that power to the Driver. Someone might have a counter to that and may render the Blades unable to get their powers from the ether. So, the only way to counter that is to fight them without a Blade. That way, you’ll avoid having to awkwardly look stupid and win at the same time.” _

 

_ “I-Is that even possible Roxas? Drivers are people with immense power at their disposal. Combine with the fact that their Blade could do so much damage, they’re a force to be reckoned with!” _

 

_ “Psh! You’re thinking things the wrong way. You take care of the Blade, you’re left with the Driver. Simple as that.” _

 

_ “It’s not that simple!” _

 

_ “Then get stronger. Strong enough that you won’t have to rely on your Blade all the time and strong enough to be able to hold your ground.” _

 

_ “You make sound so simple Roxas.” _

 

_ “That’s because it is. I don’t know how you fight or how well you can hold yourself, but if you have that sword on you, you must be somewhat decent in a fight. Get stronger and then you’ll see for yourself that it’s simple.” _

 

**000**

 

_ ‘After hearing that advice and seeing what just happened during our fight with Brighid, I could see now what Roxas was saying was right.’  _ I stood there, horrified that Nia and Dormach had almost been captured had Roxas not saved them. I couldn’t help but think what would’ve happened if Roxas wasn’t there. Since Nia and Dormach were with Jin and Malos, I couldn’t help but think their capture would be a lot worse,  _ ‘If I want everyone to be safe, I need to be stronger. Strong enough so that nothing like will ever happen again!’  _ With that in mind, I made to turn back to Tora’s house to get my sword and train…

 

_ BOING! _

 

...Only to find myself in someone’s chest. 

 

I looked up to see Pyra standing there with a bemused look, “Ah! I’m sorry!” I quickly backed off from Pyra and turned away, ashamed of myself for doing something like that. 

 

I heard Pyra giggle from behind and I blushed in embarrassment, “Don’t be. You didn’t know that I was here,” I looked over my shoulder to see Pyra with a small smile before frowning. “It’s about Roxas, wasn’t it?” I looked away and made my over to the railing, “It’s not your fault that this happened. Roxas knew what was going to happen and-”

 

“It’s not that Pyra.” I shook my head and turned towards Pyra, “I know what Roxas did for us and I want rescue him, but I’m more worried about myself.”

 

“What do you mean?”

 

“I mean, that fight against Brighid and the fight against Jin and Malos… Seeing those battles made me realize what Roxas said to me was right. In order for me to get stronger, I need to train. Train hard enough so that nothing like that will happen again. I don’t want to say this, but…” I turned to look at Pyra dead in the eye. “I need to get stronger without a Blade.” 

 

Pyra’s eyes widen with surprise. “Rex, why would you think that?! Having this amount of power would help you, help us in the long run!”

 

“You saw what happened today Pyra! Brighid and those soldiers were able to seal away Nia’s power and they couldn’t do anything! Roxas was able to cut through that net like nothing and was able to hold his own against Jin and Malos!” I clenched my fist in anger, “Seeing Roxas going up against Brighid, Jin and Malos, it made me think about what’s going to happen to us from here on out. We’ll not only go up against people that are stronger than us, we’ll also going to be risking everything on this journey. Pyra…” I turned towards Pyra and looked her straight in the eye. “Will you help me get stronger?”

 

Pyra didn’t say anything for a while and during that time, I thought she was angry for my suggestion and wanted to scold me. Moments later, I heard her giggle and later, a full-blown laugh. I quickly covered her mouth and placed a finger to my mouth. Pyra understood that and I removed my hand from her mouth, “I’m sorry, I couldn’t help but laugh. You really do act like Addam sometimes.” Pyra held my hand in her hand and I couldn’t help but blush at this contact. “I will help you. I’ll help you get stronger and in exchange, allow me to get stronger along with you! That way, I can protect you as well!”

 

“Pyra…” I couldn’t help but feel inspired by Pyra’s determination as she wanted to protect me as well. I smiled and grasped Pyra’s hand into a handshake, “Let’s both do our best!” 

 

Pyra looked a bit shocked before that shocked along was replaced with a wide smile, “En! I look forward to it!”

 

Something about Pyra’s smile made me blush a little. Still, with the two of us fighting side by side, we could do anything!

 

\------

 

**Meanwhile, Roxas’s POV**

 

…

 

…

 

…

 

Ugggghhhhhhh… Fucking hell…

 

I slowly managed to get myself up into sitting position and I instantly regretted doing that as a painful headache started to set in. I quickly grasped my head as I yelped out in pain. How many times does this make anyways?! Once the pain had subsided, I looked around my new surroundings. 

 

Apparently, I’m in a cell of sorts. The walls around me was all metal and the door in front of me had a small window with bars on them. The only thing noteworthy in this cell was a bed that was also in metal and that there’s a single pillow. Yeesh, you’d think that this place also comes with a blanket. I made to grab my sword, but as I grasped my waist, I realized that my sword wasn’t there. What the hell? Where did it… Oh. So that’s what happened. 

 

I lost the fight against Brighid. 

 

I sighed as I ruffled through my hair trying to digest this fact. I honestly don’t know how to think about it. At one point, I finally figured out how Brighid fights and that I’ll be able to use that against her next time we fight. Another point would be that I fucking lost! I fucking hate losing the most of all! Arrgh! So fucking confusing! Not only that, they confiscated my sword too! You don’t fucking do that! It’s fucking insult to my pride as a swordsman! 

 

Quickly calming myself down from my frustration, I ran through the one thought that was in my mind. Brighid’s Driver wasn’t here, so therefore, there’s still a chance that I could get my rematch against her. Of course, her Driver would also know about me and that I have a Blade… Bah, whatever. It doesn’t matter in the end, I’ll kick their ass and regain back my pride! Simple as that. Yet, one thing did concern me. 

 

How is Yuki doing? While I don’t mind Yuki being my Blade and all, I can’t help but worry about her. On the outside, she’s calm and quiet for the most part, but on the inside, she also has this urge to fight someone stronger than her. Somehow, I have a feeling that part was my fault. I always did talk about how my battles were when we meet in our separate journey. 

 

But enough about that, I’m sure that Yuki is doing fine. 

 

The door to my cell opened behind me and I turned around to see a soldier standing at the entrance, “Get up. You are to come with us. Don’t try to resist or else we’ll make this difficult for you.”

 

I considered my options, but considering that Yuki is here somewhere and that I have no idea where I am at the moment, I complied with that order and stood up. As I followed the soldier, I’ve noticed even more soldiers were following behind. Must’ve have something to do with that fight earlier. We walked for what seemed like hours until I found myself back outside. Torigoth was off the sid on my left and there was some kind of base establishment in front of me. I looked back as I was walking to see a ship behind me with a Titan on top of it. Wait, so I was in a Titan battleship? Esh, you’d think with all of this technology they have, they would’ve already gone to war with Uraya with the land reducing and all. 

 

Sadly, I didn’t get to admire the view as a soldier behind me pushed me, “Don’t slack off! Keep moving!” I only pinned a glare at him and kept walking. 

 

I saw soldiers going about their training and more soldiers walking to and fro from their positions. From what I can tell, this place is quite secure for Mor Adrian. I wonder how they manage to secure this place anyways? I didn’t get to find that answer as the soldiers that were escorting me stopped. I stopped as well to see a building that was a lot bigger than the other buildings. The soldiers then lead me inside the building and later, we came upon a door. We went inside and I saw something I should’ve seen coming. 

 

There in front of me was the Special Inquisitor of Mor Adrian, Lady Mòrag.With her official custom Mor Adrian uniform outfitted with standard armour on her leg, waist and left shoulder, she looks pretty serious. Not only that, I could see the weapon that Brighid used against me on her person and Brighid herself standing next to Mòrag. “LadyMòrag, I’ve brought the prisoner here!”

 

“Good, you’re dismissed.”

 

The soldiers looked confused about these and one of them spoke up. “Um, sir? Are you sure that’s wise? This person-!”

 

Mòrag held her hand up to stop the soldier from talking, “While I do appreciate the concern, he is without a Blade. Additionally, he is without a weapon. Even if he were to escape, I’ve place precautionary measures to make sure that he won’t escape alive.” 

 

“Ah! As expected of Lady Mòrag! If you’ll forgive me for speaking out of turn, I would like to request at least one soldier here to stand guard. Surely, having extra security here would be better!”

 

“Hmmm, if you must. Then, all but one! Return to your post and report back to me if anything comes up!”

 

“Sir!” 

 

Soon after, all but one soldier were left in the room, leaving me with Mòrag, Brighid and that soldier. I used that time to take a look around the room. A window behind a desk that was filled with some important documents, a magical device that looks to be used for communications, some couches that had red cushions with some serious fancy decors on the edges and red fabric on them. Other than the carpet underneath them, nothing else comes to mind. “So, what is it that you want from me? I’m just a traveling swordsman looking for the next big fight. Don’t you have anything bigger things to worry about?”

 

“I do and this is one of them.” Esh, talk about getting straight to the point,  “I’ve been told that the Aegis has been awoken and a Driver had appeared.”

 

“Eh? Is that so? Are you sure those aren’t just rumors? Honestly, the Special Inquisitor following rumors about something like the Aegis. Makes me rethink about you.”

 

“This is no rumor. Brighid here can attest to that.” Mòrag hovered her hand over to Brighid and then turned her back on me as she stares out the window, “In addition, Brighid has also informed me that you were at the scene of the incident along with the Aegis. What can you tell by this turn of events?”

 

“I don’t know? At the wrong place at the wrong time?”

 

“Maybe, but count the fact that you helped the Driver of the Aegis get away only proves that you were with them at the time.”

 

I shrugged, “Who knows? I heard about the strongest Blade in Mor Adrian and maybe I wanted to have a go at them. The Driver was in my way to begin with.”

 

I knew where Mòrag was going with this and I was alright with this. Being associated with the Driver of the Aegis would give me access to some of the more stronger opponents that I’ll face in the near future, so having Mòrag believe that I’m with Rex would prove useful. 

 

But that doesn’t mean that I’ll just go along with what Mòrag’s saying about me. 

 

“Anyways, why am I here? You’re not here to just inform me about the Aegis, are you?”

 

“Hm, I suppose I can give you points on your intellect.” Mòrag turned back towards me, “I want you to tell me the name of the Driver and of the Blade of the Aegis.”

 

“Alright.” I took in great pleasure to see Mòrag’s surprised expression, “What? Did ya expect me to  _ not  _ tell you? I’ll admit, I don’t even like the guy anyway. You can capture him for all I care.” I sat down on the couch as I said this and crossed my arms. “Makes things easier for you, doesn’t it?”

 

“Hmm.” Mòrag didn’t say anything else and went for something in the desk’s drawers. She pulled out two wanted posters, both showing some incredible details on Rex and Pyra. Huh, whoever made these poster, I gotta give them props. “These two individuals, are they with Torna?”

 

“If they were, wouldn’t they have already destroyed this place?”

 

“True, but we can’t take any risk.” She pointed at the two again, “These two individuals, are they with Torna or not?” I shook my head and she seemed to have relaxed her stance, “Next, who are they? What is their purpose for being here?”

 

“Those two are Rex and Pyra. The former being the Driver of the Aegis and the latter is the Blade of the Aegis. As to their purpose… would you believe me if I told you that Torna was after us?”

 

Mòrag raised an eyebrow at that, “Explain.”

 

I shifted in my seat as I tried to explain my side of the story to Mòrag. During my story session, Mòrag’s expression didn’t change as much I would’ve like, but she did listen to every detail of my story. Once I finished, Mòrag had a thoughtful expression on her face as she processed this information. “And what you said during that story is true? Every last one of it?” I nodded, “Interesting… I have a proposition that will help the both of us.”

 

I raised in eyebrow in confusion, “Oh? What’s this proposition you’re talking about?”

 

What Mòrag said to me made me smirk with grim anticipation. 

 

\------

 

**Back to Rex’s group**

 

A few days went by as Rex’s group were able to get the parts for the artificial Blade. While heading off back into Torigoth, Pyra wore a cloak that covered her crystal and her hair as it was the most noticeable. Nia had to leave behind Dormach back at Tora’s house in order to hide that Nia was a Driver. Rex, on the other hand, changed out of his salvager suit and wore a simple Gormotti shirt with vertical stripes and brown pants. 

 

Once their disguise was complete, they headed off towards the market and looked for the parts for the artificial Blade. Pyra went off towards another direction of the market while Nia went towards another, leaving Rex to get some food and find the materials for Tora’s Blade. 

 

“Hey, have you heard about that guy?” Something from behind caught Rex’s attention as he was shopping at a vegetable stall, “You know? The guy with that lady?”

 

“Huh? Oh, you mean that lady’s Driver?” the voice’s companion replied.

 

“Yeah. I heard that he caught captured by those Ardainian soldiers and that they were going to execute him!”

 

“Seriously? What for?”

 

“They think that he’s with that terrorist group, Torna.”

 

“Well, I can see why. The way that he moved was so unreal, I thought for sure that he was going to come after me! But what about that Blade of his?”

 

“Apparently, before his Blade could be taken, she disappeared!”

 

“What?! But wasn’t her Driver still alive?!”

 

“Yeah, that’s the strangest thing! The Driver was still alive yet the Blade went back to a crystal!”

 

After that, the conversation then stirred back to what should they be having for lunch. While Rex was curious about that Blade that was with Roxas and if he was lying to them about being a Driver, those can’t compare to the feeling that Rex is feeling right now. 

 

Roxas was about to die. And there was nothing he could do to stop it. 

 

With this new information, he hurried to find the materials required for the artificial Blade and made his way back to Tora’s house. Nothing noteworthy happened along the way as Rex was able to get back to the house unnoticed. He looked around the house to see that no one else was here, save for the artificial Blade still being inactive. Setting down the bag containing groceries, he thought over the next course of action. 

 

Roxas was being held somewhere by the Ardainian soldiers and Roxas’s execution is being held in a few days. With no plan in motion nor do they have an idea on where Roxas is, Rex briefly went into a panic attack. Once Rex had calmed himself down, he briefly went over several ideas in his head when his eyes made their way over to Roxas’s bag. A flash of inspiration went through Rex’s face as he made his way over to the bag. Looking through the bag, he found what he was looking for and pulled it out. 

 

While Roxas briefly went over the Switch and its various functions, he was fairly certain that he knew how to operate it. Turning on the Switch, he was greeted with the home screen. It showed several pictures on the screen, one where Rex and Pyra were standing in front of a Titan with Rex holding Pyra’s weapon and other pictures showing things that Rex has no idea what they were.  _ ‘Right, if I remember from what Roxas said, this is the home screen and if I were to press this button here three times…’ _ He did so and it lead him to another screen, one where there were several Titans floating in mid-air and seven selections on the screen. 

 

Rex was incredibly confused on what was on the screen. ‘Skip Travel’, ‘Characters’, ‘Quest log’, ‘Item List’, ‘System’, ‘Blades’  and a few others with question marks on them were on the screen. Rex had no idea on which selection does which and decided to press a random selection button. Another screen came on and it showed two Titans and the World Tree itself.  _ ‘Whoa! So this is how Roxas travels! It looks simple enough.’ _ He picked the Gormott Providence and it showed some more selections on the left side of the screen. Thinking that Roxas was still somewhere in Torigoth, he picked that and it showed an overlay of Torigoth with even  _ more  _ selections on the left.

 

Rex thought to himself whoever created this must be very organized to have this many selections on it. 

 

Anyways, on the map, showed three people-like symbols on the map. Upon closer inspection of said map, one of the symbol lies near the entrance of Tora’s house and the other near some kind of round picture. The last one was at the far edge of the map. “So which one is Roxas? Maybe... this one? No, it couldn’t be him. Could it be…?” Rex tried to figure out who’s who on the map, but ended up getting confused on the colors of the symbols. 

 

“We’re back!” Rex turned away from the Switch for a moment to see Nia and Pyra carrying some bags filled to the brim with groceries.

 

“Welcome back!” Rex  then turned his attention away from them as Rex tried to figure out the map. Rex heard some footsteps coming from behind and glanced over his shoulder to see Nia looking at the Switch with interest. 

 

“Oi, Rex. What’s that you got there?” Nia looked over Rex’s shoulder to see him fidgeting with Switch, “Oh! Isn’t that Roxas’s… thing?”

 

“Yeah. Before we managed to escape, Roxas threw his bag at me and told me to keep it safe. I’ve been curious about it since Roxas showed it to me last night.”

 

“What?! How come I didn’t see this before?!”

 

“You were sleeping. I didn’t want to wake you up for that.” Nia looked to be a bit peeved, but later calmed down, “In any case, I remember something when Roxas was explaining about the Switch. Not only can it teleport us to certain areas, it can also locate someone on the map. But the thing is, I don’t know which is Rex?”

 

Nia looked at the screen two see about two colors, one red and one blue,  close to each other. “Say Res? Wouldn’t you say that those two dots over here are us?”

 

Rex looked at where Nia pointed at the screen and saw that there were indeed two dots close to each other. Rex looked like he was on to something as he told Nia to walk towards the entrance. While Nia did look confused by this sudden request, she did comply with it and walked over to the entrance. When Rex looked back at the map, he could see the blue dot shifted away from the red dot just a bit. “Ah! I get it now! That blue symbol is you Nia and the red one is me! So the other one must be Roxas! With this, we can finally rescue Roxas!”

 

While Rex went over to Pyra, who was over at the stove getting ready to cook, to tell her the news, Nia had a sour look on her face. Roxas and Nia didn’t have a very good relationship to begin with and while Roxas has proven himself to be a strong individual, she couldn’t help but feel annoyed by him. She wasn’t sure why as she felt this way towards Roxas, but she couldn’t bring herself to care about that at the moment. Right now, she’s more curious about the Switch and where Roxas really came from. Having seen the Switch for the first time, Nia knew that there was something more to Roxas than meets the eye. 

 

However, that can wait until they rescued Roxas.

 

“Hello friends!” Tora announced his arrival through the other entrance of the house, “Tora back from market! Were friends able to get parts for Blade?” Rex nodded and quickly went back over to the bag that he placed near the other entrance. When Rex gave Tora the bag, his eyes widen with glee, “Yes, yes! This good, real good! Tora can start work on artificial Blade now! Thank you Rex-Rex!” Tora finished this while repeatedly shake Rex’s hand. 

 

“I-I-I-I-I-I ge-e-et i-i-it!” What seemed like an eternity to Rex finally stopped as Tora let go of Rex’s hand, allowing Rex to get his bearings, “Right. Tora, is it possible to hurry on your project? We’ve managed to get Roxas’s location and we need to hurry! He’s about to be executed!”

 

“W-What?! Big Brother Roxas be executed?! We can’t let Big Brother Roxas be executed!”

 

“Yeah, that’s why we have to hurry!”

 

“But does Rex-Rex know where Big Brother Roxas is?” Rex showed Tora the Switch with the map screen on it, but when Tora looked at the Switch, there was nothing on the screen. “Hm? What this? Some kind of device?”

 

Rex looked confused and looked back at the Switch. Seeing the black screen, he quickly turned it back on and showed it to Tora. The same thing happened, making Rex confused. “What in Alrest is going on with this thing?” Rex shook the Switch as if there were something inside of it.

 

“Um, Rex? I don’t think you should do that to something important to him. He himself said so that he keeps it with him for a reason.” Rex stopped shaking the Switch as he could definitely see Roxas getting angry with him. “While I am curious as to why Roxas’s Switch isn’t showing that map anymore, we mustn’t rush it! From our encounter from Brighid, it’s clear that her Driver may have come to assist in our capture and would no doubt have more soldiers wherever Roxas is right now. It might be best if we have more help.” 

 

“I would like to agree with Pyra here Rex.” Dormach joining in on the conversation. “Finishing Tora’s project will help us tremendously in the future.Who knows what those Ardainian soldiers are planning for us.”

 

While Rex was worried for Roxas, he understood what would happen if they were to come unprepared. “Alright… But we have to hurry though. We know the location of where Roxas is, but we don’t know how long we got until the execution.” With this in mind, everyone went to work on the artificial Blade…

 

...After they get something to eat first. 

 

\------

 

**Back to Roxas**

 

After meeting with Mòrag and making that deal with her, I asked her where was Yuki. She pulled out a core crystal and I knew where she was. Although I felt a bit sad that she went back into a crystal, I knew that there was a way to get her back. 

 

But for right now, I’ll have to be patient.

 

Apparently, she gave me the core crystal before I was escorted back towards my cell. As usual, there was still nothing other than the bed and that sink. I’ve sat on the bed as I stared at the crystal that was in my hand. It didn’t have that blue glow that had signify that it was ready to be resonated. I remember back about three years ago when we meet up after we parted our separate ways...

 

**000**

 

**_Three years ago_ **

 

_ It was like any other day on Alrest as I traveled around it to see if I could find my way to Elysium. I was on a Titan ship that was bound for Mor Ardain. At first, I didn’t know where this ship was going and just thought I let it take me to where it’s going until the captain came out on the deck telling us where our destination is and its famous tourist attractions. During that time, I thought on my techniques and how I can improve myself for future battles. As I was thinking on it, I felt a tap on my shoulder and turned around to see Yuki in her kimono as always. “Master, it’s nice to see you again.” _

 

_ “Hm.” I lead Yuki over to a railing and both of us stood by the railing as we watch the Cloud Sea go by. I propped an arm and rested my chin on it while Yuki placed both her arms on the railing. Both of us stared at the Cloud Sea for awhile, me thinking about techniques to use and Yuki was looking at the Cloud Sea. After a few minutes of silence, I spoke. “You’ve gotten stronger the last we meet?” _

 

_ “Yes. However, I feel as though I still need to train more.” _

 

_ “Oh? And why’s that?” _

 

_ “I could tell by your posture that you’ve managed to gain some strength during your travels. Not only that, you’re thinking of a new attack for your future battles.” _

 

_ “You sure that you’re not bullshitting me here and are trying to butter me up or something?” _

 

_ “I would never lie to you, my master.” _

 

_ “Right…” I scratched my head, “Anyways, I’ve heard that you took on Brighid, the strongest Blade in the Empire.” _

 

_ “Hai. She was strong, just like what everyone said, but I couldn’t do any damage to her.” _

 

_ “I’d figured. She’s a fire-type Blade and you’re an ice-type.” _

 

_ “I’m sorry master.”  _

 

_ I waved her off, “Think of it as a lesson. The next time you face off against Brighid, you’ll have the upper hand. Besides,” I gave her a wide grin, “Isn’t each battle you’re in the most fun you had in centuries?” I didn’t see what Yuki had on her face, but I could tell that she was smiling.  _

 

_ Afterwards, both of us told each other what we had experience during our travels. Some of it ranged from weird to excitement to confusion. All and all, it was a normal day for the both of us in Alrest. “Master? If I may ask?” I raised an eyebrow, but didn’t say anything. Yuki took that as a sign to continue. "Do you remember our deal?” _

 

_ “A… deal? Oh, you mean that? Tch, why did you have to go remind me of that?” _

 

_ Yuki nodded in grimace, “While I don’t want to forget everything about you, I fear it must be done.” _

 

_ I  _ tch  _ in disbelief as I remembered the deal we made when I first resonated with her. The deal was that if I was too incompetent of a Driver or if Yuki were to fall in battle once, she would no longer be my Blade and she would go back into a core crystal. Thinking back on it, I didn’t regret agreeing to that deal with Yuki as I know what I was getting myself into. Yuki looked at bit hesitant when she accepted, but after assuring her that she won’t go down just because of the deal, She seemed to calmed down a bit, but even as we meet from time to time, I could see some sort of doubt in her eyes that she will never get strong enough to keep up with the deal.  _

 

_ Oh, and the one that made the deal? It was me.  _

 

**000**

 

**Present**

 

At the time, I didn’t want anyone weak following me around like a lost puppy. Seriously, I’m not running a fucking charity here. Although, I was curious to see how strong a Blade really is when one is separated from their Driver. Either way, it was something that has allowed me to see how a Blade would get stronger. Now, I’m starting to regret even making that deal. I’ve known her for about five years since I’ve first meet her and she was a strong Blade, hell, she was even a great sparring partner! 

 

Normally, a Blade that has been with their Driver for more than over some years or so will forget everything about their old Driver whenever a Blade resonates with a new Driver. Their personalities, their favorite food, their love (if they even did love their Driver or not), everything about them would be gone in a blink of an eye. 

 

However, I’m not like normal people.  

 

_ “Ah! So this is where our illustrious warrior is!” _

 

...God damn it. 

 

I groaned as I remembered clear as day whose voice that belongs to. “What do you want Leo? Do you want more anguish from me or what? I don’t have time for your bullshit.”

 

Leo, being the ever-so  _ generous  _ bastard he is, laughed.  _ “Hahahahahaha! While I do wish for more entertainment from you, that can wait as I wanted to give you information regarding the Aegis.”  _

 

Huh, so we’re moving forward on the plot now, are we?

 

_ “Indeed. As of now, the Driver of the Aegis has gathered information regarding your capture and are currently working hard on that little Nopon’s project. Soon enough, they’ll storm the place to rescue you from that cell. Although, I do wonder how they’ll fare with so many soldiers guarding the area.”  _ Leo giggled like a little schoolgirl,  _ “Oh, this is so exciting! The Driver of the Aegis saving you and then falling in battle due to unforeseen events occuring in the background! Ah, imagine the many outcomes that would likely happen!” _

 

“Shut up. You’re the one that wanted this in the first place, of course you would be expecting this.”

_ “So you say. Maybe I wanted you to come out alive, maybe I wanted you to fall. Either way, I await the results of this outcome!”  _

 

Leo gave some laughs before I couldn’t hear his annoying voice anymore. I waited for a few minutes to make sure that he isn’t around me anymore to pester me beyond belief. “God fucking damn it Leo… Whatever, if what Leo said is true and Rex does know where I am…” I pocketed Yuki’s crystal away and stood up. I then cracked my knuckles as to loosen them up. 

 

**“Then it’s time to get to work.”**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Finishing this chapter around midnight with an empty stomach and a weird hallucinations are not the best way to write something, but you gotta do what you gotta do.


End file.
